Legendary disco diva Martha Wash will give a special performance at a retro-inspired Disco Tea Dance on Sunday, September 16, from 4 to 10 pm Poolside at the Saguaro Hotel, located at 1800 E. Palm Canyon Drive in Palm Springs. DJ Jerry Bonham of San Francisco’s annual “Remember the Party” will be spinning classic, iconic disco hits, and the event is a benefit for AIDS Assistance Program.
“Tea Dances have been popular in the LGBT community for many years, especially in places like Fire I...
Legendary disco diva Martha Wash will give a special performance at a retro-inspired Disco Tea Dance on Sunday, September 16, from 4 to 10 pm Poolside at the Saguaro Hotel, located at 1800 E. Palm Canyon Drive in Palm Springs. DJ Jerry Bonham of San Francisco’s annual “Remember the Party” will be spinning classic, iconic disco hits, and the event is a benefit for AIDS Assistance Program.
“Tea Dances have been popular in the LGBT community for many years, especially in places like Fire Island, Provincetown, Key West, and of course San Francisco,” says Mark Anton, Executive Director of AIDS Assistance Program. “To my knowledge, no one has ever hosted an event of this kind here in the desert, so we’re expecting a pretty big crowd to show up and boogie to those classic tracks from the 70’s & 80’s that we all know and love.”
Tickets for the Disco Tea Dance are $45 in advance and $60 at the door. To purchase tickets, call 760/325-8481 or visit www.aidsassistance.org. For those who attend this event, The Saguaro Hotel is offering a discounted room rate of $99 (plus tax and resort fees) for September 14-15, with a rate of $69 (++) on September 16. To reserve a room, please call 760-323-1711 and use rate code AAPDISCO.
DJ Jerry Bonham has a musical pedigree that dates back to 1976, and his love for music shines through in his fantastic sets of authentic ‘Trocadero’ Disco. Since 2004 he’s been the DJ for “Remember the Party” – San Francisco’s annual homage to the disco era (and the acclaimed ‘cathedral of disco’, the Trocadero Transfer dance hall) where the music of Sylvester, Two Tons of Fun, Dan Hartman, Donna Summer and all of the other superstars of disco are celebrated. Now it’s Palm Springs’ turn!
From being the un-credited powerhouse vocalist behind C+C Music Factory's classic "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)," to seeing her debut solo single "Carry On" reach #1 on the charts, Martha Wash has unquestionably made her mark in music history. Beginning her musical journey in the late 70's as one half of the disco group Two Tons of Fun, Wash found herself singing with the incomparable Sylvester. As part of the Weather Girls in the 1980’s, she scored a Grammy Nomination for “It’s Raining Men,” a song that was destined to become a cult classic.
AAP is proud to bring Ms. Wash and Mr. Bonham to Palm Springs to re-capture a bit of the fun of the disco era. The idea was the brainchild of AAP supporter Rich Young and AAP board member Tony Marchese.
Since its founding in 1991, the AIDS Assistance Program of Palm Springs remains dedicated to providing nutritional support to improve the quality of the lives of those surviving HIV/AIDS. Initiated by a small group of concerned citizens, led by the late Gloria Greene and Jeannette Rockefeller, AAP provided meals to members of the community with low incomes and suffering with HIV/AIDS. Since then, the AIDS Assistance Program's client roster has grown to approximately 500 clients. For more information, please call 760/325-8481 or visit www.aidsassistance.org.
