Pines Party: The History Behind One of Fire Island's Most Anticipated Weekends

Before the Party: Beach '79 and the Morning Party

The story of Pines Party starts twenty years before the first one.



In 1979, a community fundraiser called Beach '79 brought roughly 4,000 people to the shores of Fire Island Pines. Andy Warhol was there. The Village People were there as guests. Farrah Fawcett was there. France Joli performed at age 16, stepping in as a last-minute replacement for Donna Summer. The event raised enough money to purchase a truck for the Pines Fire Department, and it established something important: the community already knew how to come together around a beach, a cause, and a shared sense of occasion.

Four years later, the AIDS crisis had begun tearing through the Pines. In 1983, a group of residents decided to respond the way Fire Island Pines knows how. Burt Charmatz, Nikki Fried, Jerry Bovenschen, Steven Schneider, and Doris Taussig organized a morning party, an afterparty in the old Pines tradition, at Frank McDermott's house on Ocean and Driftwood Walk. Admission was $10, kept low deliberately, so the party would be accessible to everyone. Just over 100 people came. They raised $4,000 for Gay Men's Health Crisis.

They started planning for the next year. And the year after that. The party grew each year, moved locations, eventually grew too large for any single home. In 1991, GMHC moved the Morning Party to the beach itself, where 3,500 people gathered between Beach Hill Walk and Coast Guard Walk. By the final year of GMHC's involvement, the Morning Party raised $464,000 in a single weekend.

The community had built something that mattered, and the Pines had become inseparable from it. That is the context the rest of this story requires. For more on what the Pines means to its community, read Belonging by the Water.

The Founding of Pines Party

After GMHC ended its sponsorship in 1998, the Pines Party weekend did not disappear. The week had become the most prized rental period of the summer. The community had no intention of letting that energy go. In 1999, a small group of Pines residents gathered in a New York City apartment to address the void the Morning Party had left.

The apartment, it turned out, was owned by Andrew Holleran, author of "Dancer from the Dance," the novel widely credited with mythologizing the queer experience in Fire Island Pines. Vinnie Petrarca, who was in the room, noted the irony. The founding had come home to one of its own source texts.

The group wanted something different from the Morning Party: a night event, not a morning one. The first year was called "Pines 99," a nod to Beach '79. The theme was Arabian Nights. Tents were brought onto the beach. The gambling tent returned. Singer Kristine W performed. DJs Warren Gluck and Monty Q ran the music. Event producers Mitchell Greenberg and Billy Carroll, and Host Committee Chair Richard Winger, built the production from the ground up.

It ran from 10 PM to sunrise. The first Pines Party raised half a million dollars for the Harbor Millennium project and the Stonewall Community Foundation.

What the first year proved was not just that the model worked. It proved that the community was still there, still willing to build something together, and still committed to doing it in the Pines.

The Themes

One of the things that distinguishes Pines Party from the Morning Party before it is the theme. Every year, the beach transforms into a different world. Arabian Nights in 1999. Time Machine in 2018. Island of Lost Boys in 2019. Through The Looking Glass in 2020, the announced theme for an edition that was cancelled due to COVID-19. Return to Wonderland in 2021. Galactic Rodeo in 2024, the 25th anniversary edition. Dreamscape in 2025. And for 2026: Altar Ego.

The themes are not the point. They are the signal that the community keeps choosing to renew the event, to approach it as a shared creative act rather than a recurring obligation. Each year, a new invitation goes out. The fundraising mission stays the same. The beneficiaries stay largely the same. What changes is the lens through which the community decides to see itself that particular summer.

Over 27 years, that pattern has become one of the things people plan around.

The Fundraising and What It Has Built

Since 1999, Pines Party has raised over $4.8 million for its beneficiaries. That number covers 27 years of editions, including the scaled-back 2020 pandemic year, the return in 2021, and the 25th anniversary in 2024.

The money goes to three organizations. The Stonewall Community Foundation, which has received over $1.5 million from Pines Party across the event's history, funds grants and leadership programs for LGBTQ+ nonprofits across New York. The Pines Foundation supports the preservation and cultural life of Fire Island Pines itself, including Whyte Hall Community Center. The Seashore Defense Fund protects the beaches, including underwriting portions of dune fencing and post-event restoration.

In 2021, Pines Party proceeds helped fund Trailblazers Park, a permanent installation dedicated to inclusion, built for future generations and honoring those who fought for equality in the Pines and beyond.

The party raises money for the place it loves. That is a different relationship than a commercial event has to its venue, and it is part of why the week carries the weight it does.

Pines Party Week in the Pines, and a Path Forward

The Morning Party weekend became the most prized rental week of the Pines summer long before 1999. Pines Party inherited that status and has held it for 27 years. A group that understands what the week actually is arrives differently than one that booked the dates because they were available. If you want more on how to think about which week fits your group's trip, Choosing Your Week is the right place to start.

If Pines Party 2026 is already on your calendar, here are the homes available on the BēKin platform for that weekend.