First Annual Gay8 Festival Bows Next Month in Miami

Next month Miami’s famed Little Havana neighborhood will host its first annual Gay8 (pronounced GayOcho!) street festival, showcasing Latino LGBT art, music and food. To help kick off the inaugural event, numerous Grammy and Latin Grammy-nominated bands like Palo, the Spam Allstars, Suenalo and Lucy Grau will perform on the Gay8 mainstage; other events around the festival will include a cigar lounge, historic walking tours, a mini-film festival, dance parties and more.

“South Florida is often described as a ‘salad’,” remarked Damian Pardo, one of the Gay8 organizers. “Groups of people that coexist but don't connect. We wanted to offer a venue for South Floridians to connect across racial, ethnic, gender and socioeconomic lines.  We wanted to have one day filled with great music, food, art and fun as a way of connecting - kind of the way a large family does at a a Thanksgiving dinner table. It is truly amazing to see what efforts and accomplishments can come from such a seemingly light-hearted idea.”

Gay8 takes place on Sunday, January 17, 2016 from 11am to 7pm, on Miami's Calle Ocho (SW 8th Street) between 14th and 17th Avenues. For more information, including a schedule of events, visit gay8festival.com.