Weekday grind got you down? Atlanta’s LGBT weekend is your just reward. These special events and special guests put the gay in your Friday through Sunday. Go ahead. You earned it. Click your faves for details.
Friday, April 12
Designing Women Live 7 puts guys in the guise of your favorite TV show divas for another round of episode reenactments from the classic sitcom. Topher Payne as Julia Sugarbaker leads the cast (top photo) @ Academy Theatre, all weekend. Performances through Sunday, including two on Saturday, will sell out. Get tickets early and check availability in advance.
Dinner & A Movie with Jaye Lish kicks off Jungle’s Friday with a full menu, drink and meal specials, giveaways, surprises, plus this week “Priscilla Queen of the Desert” (second photo) on the big screen in the Jungle Room @ Jungle, 7 p.m. – 9 p.m. Don’t move. It’s time for The Other Show with Edie Cheezburger and her girls plus guests this week River Song Redd & Hydrangea Heath, 9:30 p.m. Now move — to Jungle’s main room for dancing with DJ Christopher Kind’s Friday Pops, 11 p.m.
Women’s softball with the lesbian-led teams of Decatur Women’s Sports League @ Kelley C. Cofer Park, Tucker, 6:30 p.m.
MixFest opens its all-weekend LGBT of color film and arts festival with a packed schedule of events, including Friday’s “DL Chronicles” Atlanta premiere and afterparty @ Morehouse College Dansby Hall, 8 p.m.
Scruff Night with DJ Shane Stiel (third photo) invades Atlanta to show you what the hookup app and the guys who love it are all about. Johnny and Joey Scruff and their NYC gang descend with Scruff swag, beats by Stiel (who blew the doors off on his last visit) and a set by local fave DJ Sean Mac @ Heretic, 9 p.m.
For The Kid Margarita Madness pours you bottomless frozen green treats, yes, but that’s not all. Get 20 percent off food, live DJ beats, raffle prizes and your host Kitty LeClaw all to benefit For The Kid In All of Us @ Ten, 6 p.m.
Atlanta Leather Pride and Atlanta Eagle 26th Anniversary kicks off a weekend-long schedule of events with a meet-n-greet bar night hosted by the Panther Leather-Levi group. Psyche up for Saturday’s beer bust cookout then main event Mr. & Ms. Atlanta Eagle 2013 plus a Sunday brunch. All proceeds this year go to the Team Friendly campaign to end stigma surrounding HIV. It all gets going and stays going @ Atlanta Eagle, 10 p.m.
Banjee Girl Friday kicks off Atlanta’s lesbian dance party weekend with the crowd that TraxxGirls attracts each week @ My Sister’s Room, 9 p.m.
“Uncensored TV” is the live recording of a TV show with you in the mix. Destiny Brooks headlines this interactive experience that is part drag, part sexy male performers, part cash and prizes and all original and amazing @ Le Buzz, Marietta, 11 p.m.
La Malquerida de Atlanta is this week’s iteration of Got Leche? gay Latin night with drag, dancing and more @ Club Rush, 10 p.m – 5 a.m.
Saturday, April 13
Festival on Ponce (fourth photo) returns with arts and crafts vendors, live music, local food and drinks and all to celebrate the beautiful outdoors with the gay-run Atlanta Foundation for Public Spaces @ Olmsted Park, 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. Sunday too. Check out photos from last time.
Flag football continues its spring season pitting the 10 gay teams of National Flag Football League of Atlanta @ Boulevard Crossing Park, 11 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. Check out photos of the gay jocks in action.
Lost N Found Youth Volunteer Orientation welcomes those who want to make a difference in the lives of homeless LGBT teens and young adults @ Rush Center, 2 p.m. Background check and $10 processing fee required.
Atlanta Rainbow Trout Spring Splash Swimmeet welcomes swimmers and spectators alike to the local gay team’s speedo-clad tournament of fit lads and lasses (fifth photo) @ Georgia Tech Recreation Center, 11 a.m.
Bad Queens Rule Casting calls all femmes, butches, tops and bottoms to show what you got for an upcoming local LGBT reality show project from Meak Productions @ 45 Bennett, 11 a.m.
HSL Honey Badgers Beer Bust brings all the gay softball jocks to the yard hosted by the Honey Badgers team. All you can drink beer, an impressive list of raffle prizes, jello shots and a hundred or so drunk-ass party gays @ Diesel, 3 p.m.
Atlanta Leather Pride (sixth photo) gets your meat cooking on the grill and soaks your insides with a barbecue beer bust as part of a full day of activities celebrating the bar’s 26th anniversary at Atlanta Eagle, 4 p.m. – 6 p.m., then the Mr. & Ms. Atlanta Eagle Contest and SWEAT Victory Party presents the contestants in Bar Wear, Fetish Wear, Playwear and Q&A before announcing the winner @ the Eagle, 8 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. Hang tight for the winner’s ball at the SWEAT Dance Party, 10 p.m.
Pumps for Pets presents a musical evening of classical, Broadway and film favorites performed by reigning title holders and others from the Miss Atlanta Scholarship Pageant Program to benefit PALS @ Jungle, 6 p.m.
Atlanta Freedom Bands Spring Swing presents Atlanta’s LGBT instrumentalists of the Metro Gnomes ensemble for swing dance lessons then live music to put it to good use @ First Existentialist, 7:30 p.m.
Levi Kreis (seventh photo) returns. The sexy gay pop singer and Atlanta Pride alum brings his Flying Solo tour to town, now as an OutMusic Award and Tony winner, for this intimate show @ Spiritual Living Center, 7 p.m.
NiteOUT at the Ballet welcomes LGBT audience members at a discounted rate to check out the current production “Carmina Burana” @ Atlanta Ballet, 8 p.m.
Kingdom Come Pageant 2013 presents the annual drag contest with the Court of Kings and an amazing array of kings and queens competing for big money and the title @ My Sister’s Room, 9 p.m.
Dave & Gerardo (eighth photo) put the sexy in sexy partners inside the DJ booth and out. They take Atlanta by storm with down and dirty NYC beats and a full night of gay dancing queens @ Jungle, 10 p.m. Come early for Lily White’s Foreplay show in the Jungle Room, 9:30 p.m.
MixFest continues its all-weekend LGBT film and arts festival of color with a full-day schedule including MixFest Forum @ Morehouse Sale Hale Chapel, 12 noon, “The Way to Kevin” World Premiere @ Morehouse Dansby Hall, 2:30 p.m., Rhyme & Rhythms Live plus Tony Enos Live @ the Green Room, 9 p.m., and much more.
Early Country & Late Night Dance offers line dancing and two stepping after the sun goes down, then DJ Mike Pope picks up the pace until close @ Heretic, 8 p.m. and 12 midnight.
Sunday, April 14
Joining Hearts Change of Seasons (ninth photo) lays down the annual event that is sure to pack in the cuties for the group’s ongoing mission to benefit AIDS Housing in Atlanta in a year-long event buildup to gay Atlanta’s biggest summer pool party. DJs Mike Pope and Lydia Prim bump your stuff @ Loews Atlanta Hotel, 4 p.m. – 9 p.m. See what you’re in for in last year’s amazing photos.
Hotlanta Softball League pitches and catches Atlanta’s gay softball teams through their weekly games in multiple divisions @ Metro Softball Complex, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. As always, the HSL Extra Innings Beer Bust follows, this week with the Atlanta Titans @ Joe’s 4 p.m.
Festival on Ponce closes out its weekend of arts and crafts vendors, live music, local food and drinks and all to celebrate the beautiful outdoors with the gay-run Atlanta Foundation for Public Spaces @ Olmsted Park, 11 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Atlanta Leather Pride and Atlanta Eagle 26th Anniversary wraps up with a Leather Brunch @ Roxx, 1 p.m. and T-Dance Wind Down Party @ Eagle, 1 p.m.
DJ Vicki Powell’s Sunday Service (bottom photo) returns for the summer to the patio at the gay-owned, alternaqueer lovin free for all bar better known as Church. Come get you some every second Sunday through August @ Sister Louisa’s Church of the Living Room & Ping Pong Emporium, 8 p.m. Here’s what that madness looks like.
Sisterhood of the Traveling Bra benefits the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer 3 Day Walk with a drag king show, beer and food specials, and 100 percent of door and show proceeds to the cause @ My Sister’s Room, 6 p.m.
The Armorettes do their weekly camp drag for charity in their ongoing mission to bring bawdy drag and donated tips to the HIV/AIDS fight in Atlanta @ Burkhart’s, 8 p.m.
