Festival gives athletic alternatives during big gay weekend

Every year, the first weekend in June brings thousands upon thousands of LGBTs to Central Florida for theme parks and parties surrounding Gay Days. But there has rarely been sports-related activities for locals or visitors during that weekendâ┚¬â€until now.

Pat Glenn, director of the 2012 GLBT Orlando Sports Festival, is hopeful that his staff's unique take on a sports event will create enough buzz in 2012 to skyrocket its success in 2013.

â┚¬Å”We decided to test market the festival over Orlando's biggest Gay Weekend, but we ran into some challenges,â┚¬Â Glenn said, adding that finding venues with availability proved difficult. â┚¬Å”So we had to scale it back some.â┚¬Â

June 1-3, the GLBT Sports Festival will feature a softball tournament and a bowling tournament. While a majority of those registered are from Florida, there are some athletes coming in from as far away as Boston and New York.

â┚¬Å”My goals were to bring local LGBT sports leagues together to strengthen their tournaments through marketing,â┚¬Â Glenn explained. â┚¬Å”And second, I wanted to expand LGBT sports offerings in central Florida.â┚¬Â

Plans are already underway to bring volleyball and basketball tournaments to the 2013 festival, which is scheduled for Easter Weekendâ┚¬â€March 29-31, 2013.

â┚¬Å”We want to keep adding events and the idea is that it'll help us gain graction to create some new sports leagues here,â┚¬Â Glenn said. â┚¬Å”Right now Orlando is bidding on the 2018 Gay Games. Growing a sports festival here could be a springboard for landing that and other large LGBT sporting events.â┚¬Â

The idea for the GLBT Sports Festival stemmed from a similar event in Las Vegas, Nev., according to Glenn. There, several LGBT leagues worked together to create one, massive sporting event over a long weekend. Five years after its inaugural event, the Las Vegas weekend is a huge success, according to Glenn.

â┚¬Å”Through combined marketing efforts, they made their event out-of-control,â┚¬Â he said. â┚¬Å”It's completely sold out each year and that's what I'd love to see here in Central Florida.â┚¬Â

There is still room to participate in the 2012 GLBT Sports Festival and interested teams and individuals can register online at GLBTFestival.com. This event is different than a sporting event marketed over Gay Days several years ago, Glenn added.

â┚¬Å”Their idea was based on bringing individual players together to meet new people,â┚¬Â he said. â┚¬Å”We're going after individuals and teams to come participate with us.â┚¬Â