The best way to stop Peter is to spread the word and to attend the officially sanctioned Sunday night party at Space with DJ Tracy Young and DJ Boris.
We encourage you to support the event that gives back to the community.
Buy an Orbit ticket or a multi-event pass.
Please attend as many of the other officially sanctioned Winter Party Festival events as you can. This money goes right back into our community.
THANKS FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT, FACEBOOK POSTINGS AND TWITTERS TO STOP PETER
THE WORD IS SPREADING ACROSS THE NATION!!
PETER HAS SUSPENDED HIS MESSAGE BOARD ON HIS WEBSITE AND DELETED ONE OF HIS FACEBOOK GROUPS
CLEARLY PEOPLE ARE UPSET WITH PETER CONTINUALLY COMPETING AGAINST NON-PROFITS AND ARE TAKING ACTION
WE HAD TO REMOVE HIS PICTURE FROM OUR WEBSITE BECAUSE MR. RAUHOFER COMPLAINED IT WAS COPYRIGHTED
BUT THAT DOES NOT CHANGE THE FACTS OR DAMPEN OUR RESOLVE…
SIPHONING MONEY FROM NON-PROFIT CHARITABLE EVENTS FOR PERSONAL GAIN IS NOT ACCEPTABLE IN
HELP US STOP PETER
PLEASE KEEP SENDING EMAILS OUT TO YOUR FRIENDS
EMAIL PETER AND TELL HIM TO STOP TAKING MONEY AWAY FROM NON-PROFIT AND COMMUNITY SERVICE GROUPS
EDUCATE YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT WHAT’S HAPPENING
POST TO YOUR FACEBOOK WALLS AND TWITTER
YOUR EMAILS, POSTINGS AND DISCUSSIONS WITH FRIENDS IS MAKING A DIFFERENCE
THANK YOU!!!
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH
Every year not-for-profit organizations and city officials throughout the
Every year people from all over the world come to these cities to participate in these events hosted and marketed by not-for-profit LGBT organizations and the local community.
Every year organizations, businesses, the media, and entertainers from all over the world come together in a “symbiotic partnership” to offer their support and services for free, and/or at a deep discount, to ensure that these events are fun and help raise vital monies targeted for these aforementioned not-for-profit organizations.
Sadly, Every year….
…there are people who do not to participate in this symbiotic partnership with the community local organizations, and city officials
…there are people who see these renowned events as opportunities to take money away from the not-for-profit organizations that give back most of the money raised – often over $100,000 – from these events to local organizations AND who also spend lots of marketing dollars to get people to come to the events in the first place
…there are people who insist on creating “rogue” events that give practically nothing back the community or to the not-for-profit organizations that plan these weeklong events that bring people to the local community
…there are people who only see these events as opportunities for their own individual gain in the name of profit; another way to refer to it is…“greed”.
These “people” - promoters, producers, DJ’s and club owners - ignore the very not-for-profit organizations that help them make profits. These “people” bypass the symbiotic relationship so many others participate in and take advantage of the tireless efforts of not-for-profits to help local communities make these global events special.
Every year not-for-profits try to engage these profiteers to the benefit of everyone, and yet every year “rogue” events still occur with no benefit to the myriad of local not-for-profit organizations that help the community every day.
Citizens of
Imagine for a moment if Elton John came to
So…
1. Why should we tolerate other people working against the “Winter Party Week”?
2. Why should we give our money to those people who are merely profiteers?
3. And, how can we dance the night away at events held by people who care little about the purpose of the events, such as “Winter Party Week”, and give nothing back?
So, we ask everyone across the nation, whether you are attending “Winter Party Week” or not to:
Together stand to demand that the practice of creating events that do not work with not-for-profit organizations hosting the week, or weekend long, special events STOPS.
Together stand and ask our sister not-for-profits, businesses, organizations, media, entertainers, producers, club owners, and city officials across the
This problem is not just a Miami or Miami Beach issue, it is a problem that is endemic across the USA and it is time we all come together and demand that this practice of creating rogue events stops.
Together stand to say “Stop Peter Rauhofer” and The Opium Group from profiteering on the backs of the LGBT community and those not-for-profit organizations who are committed to their local community, and
Together stand and ask that you boycott the March 7th event at Mansion with Peter Rauhofer and instead attend the sanctioned event at the Space roof top terrace, whose owners have graciously agreed to donate a significant percent of the proceeds of the event back to the not-profit-run National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Winter Party which benefits so many Miami citizens.
Please feel free to reference this site on your MySpace, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and other social media applications and SPREAD THE WORD of “Stop Peter Rauhofer” – www.StopPeter.com
Thank you.
PREVIOUS LOCAL BENEFICIARIES FROM WINTER PARTY EVENTS
ACLU Foundation of
Aqua Foundation for Women
Camillus House
Camposition
Center for Communications on HIV/AIDS (CECOSIDA)
Center for Positive Connections
Creative Arts Enterprises
Equality Florida
Family Resource Center of South Florida
FIU - Center for the Study of Spirituality
Florida International University
Foster Care Review
Fundarte
G-Next
Miami Beach Film Society
Miami Beach Gay Pride
Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival
Miami Gay Men's Chorus
Museum of Contemporary Art
North Miami Foundation for Senior Citizens Services
Performing Arts Center Trust
Pridelines Youth Services
Safe Schools South Florida (formerly GLSEN South Florida)
SAVE Foundation
South Beach AIDS Project
Stonewall Library and Archives
Switchboard of Miami
Tigertail Productions
United People Counseling Ministry Services
University of Miami - Miller School of Medicine
YES Institute
BY STEVE ROTHAUS, srothaus@MiamiHerald.com
Dozens of gay South Florida civic leaders are furious that a Grammy-winning DJ and a major Miami Beach nightclub group have again scheduled a dance party at Mansion that they fear will lure gay tourists -- and their money -- from a Winter Party Festival fundraiser on March 7.
Winter Party is a six-day annual festival that attracts 10,000 gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people -- many of them from out of town -- to South Beach, said chairman Chad Richter, who accuses New York-based DJ Peter Rauhofer and Miami Beach's Opium Group of piggy-backing on the fundraiser's tourist draw.
Winter Party events usually sell out. This year's host hotel, the Doubletree Surfcomber Hotel Miami-South Beach, already is fully booked for the March 3-8 festival, Richter said.
Rauhofer checks the calendar for major gay events "and just swoops in," Richter said.
In November 2008, Rauhofer produced a South Beach "Main Event'' dance party at Mansion in direct competition with White Party Week's Noche Blanca fundraiser for Care Resource, Florida's largest AIDS service agency. Four months later, he held another dance party at Mansion that competed with the 2009 Winter Party Festival's Sunday night event at Cameo nightclub on Washington Avenue.
Two years ago, 1,910 people attended Winter Party's Cameo party, which grossed $112,000. In 2009, when Rauhofer staged his dance party the same night, only 1,500 people attended the Cameo party. Gross revenue dropped to $76,000, Richter said. That was in contrast to other 2009 Winter Party events, which did not lose attendance.
Winter Party's profits benefit the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and local gay charities including Miami Beach Gay Pride Festival, Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival and Pridelines Youth Services. Rauhofer's for-profit dance parties -- which target the same demographic as Winter Party -- benefit the DJ and Opium Group.
"The Opium Group should care . . . about what's happening here in our community. It's not just about dollars," said Babak Movahedi, owner of MOVA lounge off Lincoln Road. He and Richter are among 25 local gay activists who signed an open letter from the Task Force to Rauhofer and Opium Group, asking them to not counter-schedule another event against Winter Party in 2011.
"When they see that so many people care about this in our community, they should think twice about it," Movahedi said.
Neither Rauhofer nor Opium Group marketing manager Carlos Correal returned phone calls seeking comment. Vanessa Menkes, Opium Group publicist, said by e-mail that she is in Israel for a family funeral and unable to give a telephone interview.
Rauhofer also declined a request via Facebook.
"Sorry, I won't be eligible for this interview as my party @ Mansion has NOTHING to do with Winter Party," Rauhofer responded to Miami.com blogger Juan Lopez.
Richter believes Rauhofer's planned March 7 party has everything to do with Winter Party.
"Sunday night is the biggest, most profitable night of the festival," Richter said.
Winter Party was conceived in 1993 as a volunteer, community-based fundraiser to support gay rights in Miami-Dade County.
The first beach party in 1994 netted $50,000. In March 2003, the festival had grown to several events and generated about $200,000 in profits for its then-owner, the Gay Foundation of South Florida (originally the Dade Human Rights Foundation). That group, in turn, gave grants to the gay film festival, Fort Lauderdale's gay and lesbian community center and Pridelines, a support group for LGBT teens.
The bottom fell out in 2004 when the mismanaged Gay Foundation suddenly closed. The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the nation's oldest gay civil-rights group, paid the debts in exchange for the foundation's assets -- its annual recognition dinner and Winter Party.
The Task Force agreed to keep one-third of the profits and give two-thirds to South Florida gay nonprofits. The local money is distributed through the Dade Community Foundation's GLBT Community Projects Fund.
Richter fears this year's Winter Party revenue will be worse than last year because the Sunday night party won't be on South Beach. In 2009, Opium Group bought Cameo and told Winter Party planners it wouldn't be available for this year's festival.
"They said they have a very successful straight night [on Sundays at Mansion] and they're going to move it to Cameo and give Peter Mansion, which means there's no venue for us," Richter said. "They're going to push us off the Beach."
Instead, Winter Party will hold its Sunday dance event, Orbit, featuring DJs Tracy Young and Boris at The Terrace above Club Space in downtown Miami. Shuttle buses will run all night between Space and the Surfcomber.
Richter fears that if revenue from this year's Winter Party substantially drops, the Task Force might reconsider future festivals.
"If the festival doesn't do well this year, we're not going to pull the plug," said Russell Roybal, the Task Force's deputy executive director of external relations. "We may try to do things differently in terms of the revenue we're raising, but we're not going to walk away from South Florida."
January 25, 2010
We are writing to you about a very special annual celebration that benefits the South Florida community on many levels – the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s Winter Party Festival. The 2010 Festival will take place March 3-8. As it has for many years, the Festival will support and be supported by many Miami Beach businesses. The Opium Group has benefited from an immense amount of business from Winter Party Festival over the years. This year, however, The Opium Group has not only decided to host a competing party, it has also declined to contract with the Task Force for use of either of its South Beach nightclub properties. While the Task Force has found another venue for its Sunday night party, we are very disappointed that you have withdrawn support from this important annual fundraising event.
We believe that you may not be aware of the serious repercussions this business decision may have on the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community of South Florida. Winter Party Festival is the largest annual fundraising event produced by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, our country’s oldest, most enduring national organization dedicated to achieving equality for the LGBT community. What makes it truly unique is that two-thirds of the net proceeds are distributed to nonprofit organizations serving the Miami-Dade LGBT community through a grant-making program administered by the Dade Community Foundation. In the past five years, nearly $800,000 in proceeds from the Task Force’s Miami events has been distributed to local organizations.
The dollar amount dispersed last year was significantly less than the amount raised in previous years, in part because a competing event at The Opium Group’s Mansion property resulted in a 32% decrease in revenue for Winter Party Festival’s 2009 Sunday night dance party. As a result, there was less money to be distributed to the Dade Community Foundation’s sixteen grant recipients, including the ACLU Foundation of Florida, Center for Communications on HIV/AIDS, Equality Florida, Miami Beach Gay Pride, Pridelines Youth Services, Safe Schools South Florida, SAVE Foundation and Switchboard of Miami.
Winter Party Festival buoys many local businesses by bringing in over 10,000 people from around the world to shop, dine and experience the Miami Beach nightlife. In fact, the Miami Beach Visitor & Convention Authority awards the Task Force with a sizable grant each year to enhance the Festival’s marketing efforts. The Festival’s centerpiece event, the Beach Party, is the attraction that draws approximately 10,000 guests from around the world to Miami Beach, but it is the other dance parties that allow the Festival to generate a healthy return on investment. The Sunday night dance party, in particular, is critical to the Festival’s success.
The economic crisis our country has been experiencing has negatively affected individual giving. As a result, our local organizations are more dependent than ever on grants. The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and its team of dedicated South Florida volunteers have been working extremely hard for the past nine months to ensure that the pool of money from the 2010 Festival is larger than ever. The production of a successful Sunday evening dance party is crucial to achieving this goal. It is inevitable that a competing event targeted at the same audience will make this objective even more difficult to meet.
While we realize that that your plans for 2010 are already in place, we hope that, equipped with a better understanding of what Winter Party Festival means to our local community, you will not sponsor a competing party next year. We also hope that you will consider making one of your venues available to the Task Force in 2011. In the meantime, we ask you to support the Festival and its mission of raising funds for the LGBT community by making a sizeable donation to the Task Force.
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force would welcome a further dialogue about Winter Party Festival and the opportunity to answer any questions you may have. The organization can be reached through Russell Roybal, Deputy Executive Director of External Relations, at 202.639.6324.
Rea Carey
Executive Director
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
Steve Adkins
Executive Director
Miami-Dade Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce
Michael Andrews
Executive Artistic Director
South Beach Chamber Ensemble
Willis “Chip” Arndt
Executive Vice President
Merchant Advantage
Thomas Barker
Executive Editor and Publisher
Wire Magazine
Cindy Brown
President
Cenergy, LLC
James Brown
Retail Marketing Director
Perry Ellis
Jerry Chasen
Chair, GLBT Community Projects Fund
Dade Community Foundation
Victor Diaz-Herman
Board Chair
Pridelines Youth Services
Edison Farrow
President
SoBe Social Club
Luigi Ferrer
Executive Director
Pridelines Youth Services
Stephen Greenberg
President
Stephen Greenberg Designs
Robert Loupo
Co-Founder and Executive Director
Safe Schools South Florida
Jake Miller, Esq.
Attorney and Counsellor at Law
Law Offices of Jake Miller
Babak Movahedi
Owner
MOVA
Tim Nardi
General Manager
Shore Club Miami
George Neary
Associate Vice President of Cultural Tourism
Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau
CJ Ortuno
Executive Director
SAVE Dade
Chad Richter
Retail Sales Manager
Kiehl’s Since 1851
Rick Siclari
Executive Director
Care Resource
Herb Sosa
President
Unity Coalition
Daniel Spring
South Beach Insurance Agency, Inc.
John Tanzella
Executive Director
International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association
Laura Veitia
EWM Realtors
George Vesa
Manager
The Strand Ocean Drive
FACT OR FICTION
I am writing to you today as a volunteer and as a resident of Miami Beach who wants to ensure that the Winter Party is able to remain an event that we can all enjoy for years to come. I'd like to ask for your support of THE ONLY OFFICIAL WINTER PARTY SUNDAY NIGHT EVENT with DJs Tracy Young and Boris at Space Terrace on Sunday, March 7, 2010.
I don’t have to tell you that Winter Party is an amazing celebration that people have looked forward to for over 15 years now. But what you may not realize is that it raises money to support the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and many nonprofits serving the local LGBT community.
We know that those who will be in Miami for Winter Party Festival are once again being offered the choice of another Sunday night event, one that does not support the Festival or the LGBT community. I want to make sure you have some important information before you make your decision.
There are a lot of misperceptions about Winter Party Festival, and it’s important to separate fact from fiction.
FICTION: Winter Party Festival doesn’t really raise money for the community.
FACT: Winter Party Festival and its sister event, the Miami Recognition Dinner, have raised over $2.5 million for the LGBT community. In the past five years, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force has donated almost $800,000 of the money raised from these events to the Miami-Dade LGBT community through grants administered by the Dade Community Foundation.
FICTION: One competing event doesn’t really hurt Winter Party Festival that much.
FACT: Sunday night is historically the most profitable of all of Winter Party’s nighttime dance events. Last year a competing event decreased our revenue significantly and resulted in less money for the community as a whole.
Only events listed on www.winterparty.com are official Winter Party Festival events. Only official Winter Party Festival events have a proven track record of giving back significant funds to the LGBT community nationally and locally.
I hope I can count on your support. I like Peter's music very much, but I care more about our community and about ensuring Winter Party is able to continue producing the Festival. Please consider to attend only Official Events!
Chad Richter