Provincetown, a gay, gay, gay vacation

Aug. 01 2013

by Laurence Ogiela / TÊTU

at the tip of the Cape Cod Peninsula, Provincetown is an artist's town that has become a resort for gays from Boston, New York, Montreal and Toronto. and many others, all attracted by the reputation of the small, tolerant, party town.

P-Town is a year-round venue for LGBT events and the rainbow flag is held high. In summer, the city's population grows from 3,500 to 50,000, and the main street, Commercial Street, looks like a non-stop gay pride parade!

Among the visitors are bears, lesbians, same-sex families, singles on the prowl, drag queens and celebrities such as John Waters who owns a house there. The high season begins in May with the Baby Dyke Weekend for young lesbians and ends in late October with the Mate's Leather Weekend for leather and latex enthusiasts.

In between, there is the Circuit Week on the 4th of July for the young muscular guys, the Bear Week for the big hairy gays, the Girl Splash for the lesbians in heat, the Family Pride Week for the gays with children, and the Carnival in August, a real festival of drag-queens of all kinds. Here are our favorite addresses.

Enzo
An excellent Italian restaurant with a huge terrace, installed in a beautiful captain's house. We come here for the seafood pasta and for the view on Commercial Street which allows us to ogle everything that passes by.
186 Commercial St.

Spiritus Pizza
The last stop after a drunken evening zigzagging from bar to bar. We come here to recover from our emotions by tasting a giant slice of pizza, sitting cross-legged on the sidewalk.
190 Commercial St.

Atlantic House
AKA A-House, one of P-Town's iconic clubs for the past twenty-five years! Three bars and different nights every night: a laid-back atmosphere at Little Bar, and a manly, leathery vibe at Macho Bar, upstairs.
8 Masonic Place.

Dick Dock
Under the Boatslip boardwalk, this is the late night show, or rather the place to pick up women once all the bars and clubs are closed.

Boatslip
This is the most famous and hottest gay tea dance in the United States. Hundreds of guys are sweating and dancing in their bathing suits by the pool facing the ocean. The atmosphere is at its peak around 5pm when the sun's rays are milder and everyone has returned from the beach.
161 Commercial St.

Pied Bar
This is where everyone migrates after the tea dance to continue the evening on the terrace with a view of the ocean and good sets from famous DJs
193 Commercial St. Pied Bar

Crown and Anchor
Part video bar, part sports bar (Wave), part leather bar (Vault), part cabaret with performers and drag queens, part club (Paramount), this complex is dedicated to fun and dancing. At the Paramount, the bartenders wear a tank top that says "I'm who you need to fuck to get a drink round here"!
247 Commercial St.

MacMillan Wharf
The city's main wharf is transformed into a giant dance floor during the 4th of July celebrations and the carnival in August. It's the U.S. version of Ibiza, with lots of guys dancing and sweating shirtless in tight rows.

Lobster Pot
The lobster specialist in all its forms for lobstermaniacs! But they also serve steaks, Portuguese food and vegetarian dishes
321 Commercial St.

Herring Cove Beach
in P-Town, even the flags on the beach that indicate swimming hazards take on the colors of the rainbow flag. To reach the tip of Herring Cove Beach, overrun with handsome boys dredging in the dunes, you have to cross a path through the reeds that is flooded with water at high tide, or walk up the entire beach from the parking lot. there is a lot of heckling in the dunes, but beware of the patrolling rangers.