It’s been a while since LGBTs would trek out every week to Grand Prairie to Forum Roller World for gay skate night, a hit with the community that eventually fizzled away. Never fully deterred, though, Don Blaylock — who used to DJ the event — decided it’s time to bring it back.
“People loved it before,” he says. “I thought it would be great to bring back and have something for people to do.”
Blaylock says that interest had already been brewing when he started handing out flyers on the street.
“The response has been so positive,” he says. “There is an unbelievable interest in it.”
Just don’t expect to find info about it online. Blaylock is old-school and doesn’t do things on “the computer” too much. (Advice to Mr. Blaylock: Facebook is so much easier.)
“I’m just doing it by good ol’ word of mouth,” he laughs. “I’m stuck in the ’70s.”
Skate night won’t be the same as before in two ways. First, Blaylock is not returning to the DJ booth. Instead, he’s in talks with the rink DJ to play tunes that will work for the fabulous crowd as well as for the regular weekend skaters.
Second, it’s going from a weekly event to monthly. Figuring that overexposure may have contributed to waning interest the first time, skate night will be every third Saturday of the month, but this first one will be Friday.
“I just wanted to get it going and began planning it before I thought about it too long,” he says.
Skate nights will begin at a meeting place for a quick energy-boosting nosh, then skaters will roll off to InterSkate Roller Rink in Lewisville. For now the cost will be the admission fee at InterSkate and people can bring their own wheels.
—Rich Lopez
Gay Skate Night, June 17. Meet at Hunky’s, 3940 Cedar Springs Road, at 6:30 p.m., then InterSkate Roller Rink, 1408 S. Highway 121, Lewisville at 8:30 p.m. $3. InterSkate.net. 214-207-7430
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition June 17, 2011.
