So I posted a few weeks back about my upcoming trip to FIP for the 4th, and now that I'm back I wanted to share a bit about my experience. While I've been cynical of Fire Island before, I actually ended up having a great time and I'd definitely do it again next year with the same group! High level thoughts:

• I stayed in a house with a bunch of other Brooklyn gays, a couple of whom were friends of friends and I hadn't met before. This group totally made the trip for me and we vibed together so well; at the end of the day I think this is the most important thing!

• Not sure if it was because of, in spite of, or unrelated to the fact that it was a holiday weekend, but one of the first things I noticed was that the crowd seemed a lot more racially diverse than when I went a couple of years ago, so that was nice.

• I skipped the (in)famous Friday night underwear party this time, but a couple of people from our house went; they said it was pretty meh. I think I'll likely continue to skip this on future visits.

• We went to the big IndepeDANCE party on Monday night, and while I had a good time the vibe was definitely very aloof and somewhat...self conscious? Definitely not as flirty/sexy as I would've liked. I guess at the end of the day we can't expect the same level of partying that you'd see in the city or in a destination like Mykonos or PV.

• What I did like a lot were the private house parties, which I was lucky enough to get invited to this time. The ones we went to were pretty chill but there were definitely plenty of sex and drugs for those who wanted to partake.

• Again, I'm guessing this was because it was a holiday weekend, but there were a LOT of people not from NYC or even from the East coast...and I got the impression a lot of them don't get out that much? There were people rolling at Tea...it was just like, sweetie, this isn't that kind of party!

Tl;dr I had a blast and would go again, but probably not for another holiday weekend. For anyone else who was there, what did ya'll think?