Over the weekend, San Francisco’s core characteristics of queer pride, environmentalism, and cannabis culture cross-pollinated with the blossoming of the Bloom party. Cultivated by the LGBTQ+ Burning Man tribe The GlamCocks on the eve of the stoner high holiday of 4/20, this bucolic bacchanal transformed the Roccapulco nightclub into a garden of earthly delights featuring flowery decor, Poison Ivy-themed stage shows, and fierce floral fashion. For Joey McGrath, the regional lead of SF’s GoldenCocks, Bloom was a tribute to the weekend’s twin holidays of 4/20 and Earth Day – and his hometown as well.
“I think Bloom definitely expressed a lot of what San Francisco is,” McGrath recounted the next day during a Glamcock 4/20 bonfire party at Ocean Beach, “as well as what Burning Man is. We saw a lot of creativity in looks that people were wearing, we saw a lot of expression, we saw a lot of love. Everything was decorated in amazing spring decor. And the energy was fantastic. So I think everything was reflected exactly like we wanted.”
Producing parties is ingrained in The GlamCocks DNA. For over a decade, their camp has served as a prominent nightlife venue in Burning Man’s gayborhood, hosting a litany of themed events, including the Star Wars-inspired ‘Glampire Strikes Back,’ the feline-fueled ‘Catpocalypse Meow,’ and their annual speedo-clad ‘Baewatch Beach Party.’
With members of the group populating multiple major cities, this legacy extends beyond the borders of the Burn. The Los Angeles-based Glams (aka the AngelCocks) have carved a niche in SoCal nightlife with their yearly Pride parties at the iconic Catch One nightclub, while New York’s GothamCocks dominate Halloween with their City of Gods collaboration with several Manhattan-based Burning Man camps.
Bloom was an opportunity for the GoldenCocks to host an event that exemplifies the spirit of their queer mecca.
“We were trying to figure out what’s our holiday,” said McGrath, also known by his nom-de-Glam ‘G.I. Joe,’ “How are we going to make our mark? And we realized that around Earth Day, as well as 4/20, there wasn’t anything on the books. And so we decided that why not throw a big spring party. And in spring, everything’s in bloom. We could do a lot of colors and flowers, so we landed on Bloom.”
Beyond celebrating Mother Earth and marijuana, Bloom showcased a number of the principles that define Burning Man, including the concepts of radical self-expression, gifting, participation, and inclusion. For McGrath, delivering aspects of the Burn into the normal, or ‘default,’ world is an important purpose for the Burner community.
“A lot of people find the best versions of themselves out at Burning Man,” opined McGrath, “and get a lot from it, and learn so many good qualities about how to be a good citizen, and how to really live life to the fullest, and how to be there for other people. And so with these parties, we try to recreate that experience that people can feel that magic that they feel at Burning Man here in their normal life.”
For those who missed the floral festivities this weekend, we’ve snatched some of our favorite images from Bloom to brighten your Earth Day.
Photography by Mike Ciriaco
