My 1st Palm Springs White Party 35 years ago, we were young, ambitious and not a fear to be worried about. The White Party started as humbly as something so iconic can. Jeffrey Sanker decided to host a weekend-long party for 500 of his friends at the Marquis Hotel. For a personality as large as Sanker’s, this was something of an intimate affair. He’d built a reputation on the party scene as a professional mover and shaker for clubs that need no introduction (but you’re going to get one anyway): Studio 54 and Private Eyes. It was so much fun, some of us decided to contribute financially toward the next one, now we call it a kick starter.
Yet, from the jump, it was obvious that the White Party was special. Keep in mind that 1989 was a time of intense homophobia, further amplified by the seemingly endless tragedy of HIV. Sanker’s intentions may have been modest, but he was offering the gay community sanctuary, dignity, and joy in a society that seemed to reiterate on a daily basis that they were somehow “wrong.”
The White Party Palm Springs became an annual excuse to dance away these worries in a supportive environment. Differences were exalted. Uniqueness was next to godliness. And all of that beauty that was repressed to fit some sort of rigid social mold was liberated in decadent glory. People started to travel from across the country (and eventually the world) to indulge in the event that allowed them to be themselves. And yet, the White Party never got caught up in pretension. It was somehow a massive event and casually welcoming simultaneously.
For well over three decades, the White Party Palm Springs has been promising the gay community of Southern California and beyond at least one weekend when they could tune out the noise and just follow where the music and their hearts took them. But those hearts will be skipping a beat in 2025… and not in the magical butterflies-in-the-stomach and firecrackers-in-the-dancing-shoes kind of way. More in the potential cardiac arrest kind of way.
Suddenly, the “little” 500-guest party Sanker started had expanded to a guaranteed sell-out of the Palm Springs Convention Center. Not to say the promoter just wandered into it. He’d had to spar with the city for licenses and permits a-plenty. Chalk it up to growing pains. But eventually, Palm Springs embraced the White Party as a culturally vital aspect of its proud gay community… and perhaps more relevantly to the powers-that-be, a much-appreciated source of revenue.
The city even honored Sanker with a star on the Palm Springs Walk of Fame. There were only about three months of any year that he wasn’t firmly entrenched in planning the next year’s party. A whim had commandeered Sanker’s life. And then the unthinkable happened.
n 2021, after a battle typically valiant of the way he’d lived his life, Sanker succumbed to liver cancer. In his foresight, he’d selected Chris Diamond to serve as the steward for the White Party Palm Springs, ushering it safely into the hearts of future generations. Diamond held a strong personal connection with the White Party. It was the first moment he’d witnessed an event elevated to the production value the gay community deserved. And this profound understanding made him a spirited choice as the heir to Palm Springs’ legendary circuit party. Under Diamond’s guidance, generations mixed and mingled in a world that, at least for the weekend, seemed to belong solely to them.
Now that we know that the White Party Palm Springs is canceled for 2025, the ultimate question remains: why? And unfortunately, we’re relegated to speculation. Some have posited that it’s just no longer financially feasible to host the White Party with the modern expenses of Palm Springs. After all, another of the area’s annual parties, Blatino Oasis, recently announced it was calling it quits just one year shy of its 20th anniversary.
No matter the reason behind it, the cancellation of the White Party Palm Springs has a particularly profound sense of sadness to it. Just as it came onto the scene at a time when the gay community really needed it, it’s leaving at a moment when surveys are indicating declining support for LGBTQ+ rights and protections in America. According to the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute non-profit, same-sex marriage support fell from 69% in 2022 to 67% in 2023. Meanwhile, the same report indicated that support for workplace protections for LGBTQ+ individuals declined from 80% in 2022 to 76% in 2023.
Organizers sadly can’t press the rewind button on the White Party. But this also feels like a terrible pause point from the perspective of a community that could really use a drink and a dancefloor.
Photo credit: White Party Palm Springs Facebook