On Saturday, June 6, the management of the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Dallas, with a message of “sorry it didn’t work out,” canceled all remaining events for the DaddyLand Festival 2024 circuit party. Additionally, the hotel asked all DaddyLand participants staying at the property to vacate the premises by 6 pm that evening.
Crowne Plaza cancels DaddyLand events, evicts participants from hotel https://t.co/OLLRHbFZGD pic.twitter.com/TF1KzJGszq
— Dallas Voice (@DallasVoice) July 7, 2024
Titled “DaddyLand Mythology,” the event was billed as a “mega music festival for Daddy lovers.”
Ersin Winokur, one of the organizers for DaddyLand, announced via social media that the cancellation was due to complaints from “guests not attending the festival.” He added that only the events scheduled at the hotel have been canceled, while all other events being held at other venues will continue as planned.
Hotel guests staying at the Crowne Plaza for the DaddyLand weekend reportedly received a printed notice asking them to please “leave immediately.”
There’s been much discussion about the kerfuffle over on the r/AskGayBros subreddit including knocking down claims of homophobia by the hotel, which has reportedly hosted many LGBTQ events in the past.
Some folks are throwing out allegations of inappropriate sex and/or possible drug use, but Instinct has no confirmation of any of that. One Redditor in the thread who says he helped organize the event (but quit before the festival began) offered his take in a lengthy comment here.
Related: DaddyLand Circuit Party Evicted Over Sorority Members Complaints
UPDATE: The Advocate’s Christopher Wiggins contacted the hotel’s owner, Terry Tognazzini, who said:
The eviction was prompted by complaints by Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority members, who were also in town for their biennial national convention, according to the hotel owner. He said the women complained about the attire of some of the Daddyland attendees.
Among the rumors that swirled around the incident were accusations that attendees had been found nude and unconscious in the lobby, that some flashed other hotel guests in an elevator, or that syringes with the erectile dysfunction medication Trimix were discovered in a designated “boom boom room,” where attendees could have sex.
Tognazzini and Daddyland staff firmly denied these rumors. Tognazzini confirmed that no such incidents had occurred and that the decision to evict the attendees was based on complaints about their attire.
Evicting all hotel guests associated with the event from their rooms seems extreme. Why not let folks stay in the rooms they paid for where any and everything inappropriate for “the public” would be in private? Why punish all attendees for what might be the actions of a small bunch of people?
I probably would’ve thrown the furniture out the window lol
Gay circuit parties usually feature men wearing not much, and what they do wear is provocative, to say the least.
I’m surprised the hotel didn’t carry out due diligence research before accepting bookings for this event, but given they’ve frequently hosted LGBT+ events before, and they’re losing tens of thousands dollars in refunds to the event’s attendees, it doesn’t sound like discrimination to me.
If it does not represent the overall community and the core of its values then I understand why it would be difficult to host an event that is based on this specific topic.
Not for anything but if it meets the merits of discrimination then pursue the issue legally.