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By: RYAN LEE
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Father Time — and insurmountable debt — caught up with what has been called the
nation’s oldest circuit party.
The Hotlanta River Expo, which began on the waters of the Chattahoochee River
in 1978 and grew into one of the southeast’s most popular annual events for
gay men, ended after a wash-out in 2003 and nearly a decade of operating in
the red, according to Bryan Craft, HRE president.
“The organization will not be holding an event this year,” Craft said this
week. “Financially there is just too much to get done, too little money.”
Last year’s event “didn’t generate the revenue we would hope, but 2003 was
not the sole source of the problem,” Craft said. “There were debts going back
a number of years.”
Craft would not comment on how much money Hotlanta owed its creditors, nor
would he provide a list of creditors.
Last year, Hotlanta released a statement that said the vast majority of creditors
are individuals who fronted HRE money, and the company estimated that its debt
was $90,000 and growing.
Hotlanta River Expo is registered as a not-for-profit corporation in Georgia,
not a 501c3 non-profit, meaning it is not required to submit any budgetary
disclosure reports, according to Jackie Slate, a spokesperson in the Secretary
of State’s office.
In addition to being unable to turn a profit in recent years, Hotlanta also
fell victim to alleged embezzlement scams by two of its chief financial officers,
in which at least $47,500 was stolen in 2000 and 2001.
Whether Hotlanta will resurface depends on whether creditors wish to hold
an event under the HRE trademark in an attempt to recoup their investments,
said Craft, who added that he has heard of no such plans.
“Right now, the creditors are in the driver’s seat, not us,” Craft said. “If
creditors want to hold an event to make money, that’s up to them.”
Tony Hayden, a writer for thecircuitdog.com — a Web site devoted to circuit
party news and chatting — called Hotlanta and the early August vacancy created
by its departure “damaged goods,” not likely to be replaced by a similar event.
“It doesn’t mean that another type of weekend [won’t] evolve [in Atlanta],” Hayden
said. “Somewhere there already is a unique spark in the city that is ready
to ignite. Embracing the culture and uniqueness of Atlanta will bring the weekend
destination events back to life.”
In its twilight years, Hotlanta River Expo had trouble living up to its mission
and its name.
The event started in 1978 when about 300 gay men rafted down the Chattahoochee
River, a tradition that continued as party after party was added to transform
HRE into a massive four-day celebration, complete with Mr. and Miss Hotlanta
pageants.
Mark Baker, a circuit party producer, credited HRE with laying the foundation
for blockbuster circuit events like Gay Days at Disney, which Baker recently
helped produce in Orlando with Jeffrey Sanker.
“I think what Hotlanta did was they had the whole uniqueness of having the
river-raft experience and they built the weekend around it,” Baker said. “There
was something more to the weekend than the party.”
But in 2002, HRE officials cancelled the rafting segment of the weekend after
the company from which HRE rented rafts went out of business and concerns were
raised about pollution in the river.
The “grandfather of all circuit events” was irreparably damaged after eliminating
the rafting, which fostered bonding among party-goers, Hayden said.
“The rafting was one of the most important key elements of the camaraderie
of the weekend,” Hayden said. “It was cold and dirty, but it was the fabric
that made Hotlanta different. Eventually [HRE] fell under the cookie-cutter
spell and tried to be like every and anyone else.”
Baker agreed that the move helped HRE lose its magic and appeal.
“I think that was something they couldn’t recover from,” he said.
Like other circuit events, HRE touted its parties as a way to raise money
for AIDS organizations. Prior to the event last year, HRE claimed contributions
of more than $120,000 to local charities in its 25-year history.
But the sole beneficiary from last year’s event — Pets Are Loving Support,
a non-profit dedicated to helping terminally ill people keep their pets — didn’t
receive any contributions from HRE, said Ken Rich, executive director of PALS.
“They didn’t have any money to make a donation,” Rich said. “I think ‘surprised’ best
describes [our reaction].”
Last year continued a string of disappointing financial performances for HRE
in which organizers spent more money than the weekend generated, meaning the
event often had little, if any, ...
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