Club Skirts Dinah Shore Weekend, popularly known as “The Dinah”, is a five-day weekend getaway and music festival catering to the lesbian community that takes place annually in Palm Springs, California, United States. It is considered the largest lesbian event in the United States and the world. Held each spring, the event offers a series of pool parties, night entertainment, live concerts by Top Ten Billboard recording artists, comedy shows, sport-games and social networking opportunities. Primarily catering to the lesbian demographics, The Dinah celebrates the tapestry of women around the world, attracting some 10,000-plus participants from countries such as Australia, Russia, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Japan, China, South Africa, Belgium and Spain. Over the years, it has gradually rallied the corporate support of market leaders such as Miller Beer, MTV/LOGO Networks, here! TV, Sirius Radio, Showtime, O.B. Tampons, Shake Weight and Bacardi among others.
History
First events
The Dinah Shore Weekend was named after the late Dinah Shore – a singer, TV personality and renowned golfer, born Frances Rose Shore, in 1916, who lived in the Coachella Valley and is credited for having founded in Palm Springs the Colgate-Dinah Shore Winner's Circle. The Dinah now coincides with the Kraft Nabisco Championship women’s golf tournament. The first unofficial Dinah Shore Weekend took place in 1986 when women began to flock to Palm Springs in conjunction with the tournament. After-dinner parties following the golfing turned benefits for the Human Rights Campaign and the AIDS Service Foundation.
Official debut
The first Dinah Shore Weekend was produced in 1991 by Mariah Hanson under her Club Skirts Presents The Dinah Marquee at the Palm Springs Art Museum.
The Dinah has become a platform to mobilize the lesbian community around LGBT-oriented humanitarian projects and social issues. Hanson has teamed up with a variety of organizations and lent her support to various humanitarian causes and activist movements such as GLAAD, NOH8, LOVE IS LOUDER, The San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Community Center, The Women's Building, National Center for Lesbian Rights, Jon Sims Center, Ladies Philharmonic, Uhuru Movement, HRC, Lyon Martin Health Clinic, Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Community Center, and Equality California. Hanson just ended her second term on the Board of Equality California and also sits on the "Women's Night" committee for the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center. Both organizations are named charity recipients of The Club Skirts Dinah Shore Weekend.
