As Vegas gets hotter, the Matinée Las Vegas Festival returns to cool things down while firing them up. Now in its fifth year, event promoters Jake Resnicow, Patrick Crough and Paul Nicholls have planned a party that promises fun, fun, fun!

Gay Vegas got to chat with Jake and Paul all about Matinée.

What are your roles in Matinée Las Vegas? Tell me a little bit about the history.

Paul: We’re all partners in the event and Jake was actually the one who originally brought Matinée to the US.

Jake: I brought Matinée to New York City for the first time in 2010 where we took over Governors Island for Gay Pride weekend. The next year we brought the Matinée experience to Las Vegas for what has become the fastest growing gay dance festival in the country. Paul has come on board and helped grow Matinée to where it is today, and we’re really excited for our five-year anniversary, where our Saturday main event will be taking over the newest waterpark in the country.

You say you brought Matinée to the US. Where did it originally start?

Jake: So Matinée is from Spain. It happens every Saturday in Ibiza at Amnesia, where they do 20,000-plus people every Saturday. It’s pretty incredible. And their signature event that really is for the gay community is the largest gay event in the world, which is Circuit Festival Barcelona. It happens every August and they do tens and tens of thousands of people in Barcelona.

Paul: And their biggest event of that is actually their waterpark party, which is why we’re so excited to bring that waterpark party for the first time to the US.

So at what point did you decide to have this party in Las Vegas? How did that come about?

Paul: I think Jake had explored Vegas. They had done an event on July 4th weekend, which I attended actually, as a guest the first time. And I think that’s where they really saw the potential in Las Vegas. You know, Las Vegas is unique obviously in many ways. One being that it is the entertainment capital of the world. There are so many amazing resources, whether it is nightclubs or performers at our doorstep. The other factor, especially in the United States market, is that you can serve liquor 24 hours. It really gives promoters like us a lot more flexibility when not dealing with a last call to really let the party flow organically and really deliver a true Barcelona experience, and the experience that people would get travelling to some of these parties in Europe, but obviously in a much more convenient location right in their backyard in Las Vegas. I think that’s definitely one of the reasons for the rapid growth of the event, and I think it’s also one of the reasons that the event just has a special and unique energy to it. I think Vegas has been a key part in us being able to deliver that product and really build a brand in the United States.

How did Cowabunga Bay, the waterpark, get involved with Matinée? Was it easy to convince them to do a gay party?

Paul: Yes actually. I’m pleased to say it was very easy to convince them to do it. They couldn’t be more into it frankly. There was more than one waterpark, but they were the one that immediately when we mentioned it to them were all about it and thought it was a great idea, and still could not be more excited about having an LGBT event, which is exciting. It’s a sign of the times I think. They’re thrilled to be welcoming us. In fact, not only that, but we’re their first real private event of this nature. It’s not like they’ve done straight events or something, which I’m sure they’re obviously open to and they’ll do those as well. We’re kind of really flattered and honored to be the first ones in there doing an event like this.

It is an unbelievable waterpark. They’re brand spanking new. They just finished putting the finishing touches on a couple of rides. They have everything from four-person raft rides to giant hot tubs to a wave pool, which is actually heated, 15 different types of waves. It’s a pretty amazing space. And the way this place was designed, you would almost think it’s designed for a party because it has a very central kind of vibe to it, as opposed to a lot of waterparks are very much like a maze and are very spread out, this waterpark focuses all around the wave pool, which is really perfect for us to create a party environment because it creates that nucleus of energy.

Cowabunga Bay is located where exactly?

Jake: It’s in Henderson. We’re going to be running free shuttles from the Rumor Hotel throughout the night.

Paul: We always encourage people, especially if they’re going to be drinking, to cab it or shuttle it over, as opposed to driving.

I’m sure there have been some outrageous things you’ve seen in the five years of doing Matinée in Las Vegas. What are some of the most out there things you’ve seen happen?

Paul: One of the things that happened, and it’s kind of become a yearly tradition now, is at the Monday dance people do little shows from their balconies. It’s always really funny. People have found new creative ways to perform these shows. We had one group on a balcony that were parading out a guy sitting on an ironing board like he was Cleopatra or something. I could give you a list of things we’ve seen. It’s become kind of an unspoken tradition. We call them the Monday balcony shows.

Shifting gears, tell me about the pyrotechnics that are going to be involved this year?

Jake: I think what makes Matinée Vegas so special is access to venues that can do things you really can’t do anywhere else in the world. For example, on Sunday night at our main event we’re literally shooting out massive fireballs in the middle of the club that as you’re dancing on the dance floor you just feel the heat and see it right above you. It’s like no club in the world, and we take it over for our Sunday night main event. . It’s incredible. I’ve been to Ibiza, I’ve been all around the world, to Barcelona – nobody can do what they do at Rain.

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And what kind of attendees do you get? Internationals? Locals?

Paul: Huge international crowd. Vegas is a very easy place to get people almost from anywhere in the world.

Of course it makes sense that we get a lot of people who would travel up from LA and San Diego.

Jake: It’s also a very young crowd, which is really exciting, with many of our attendees coming for the fourth or fifth consecutive time. We always start our weekend passes at an incredibly low rate that we don’t even really make money on. Starting an entire weekend at $99 or $149. We’ll slowly release the information – whether it be DJ lineups or venues. But those people that jump on those early bird tickets really trust and have come to expect same great production every year and it’s really exciting to see that. The hardest thing is price for so many people and we want to make it so everyone can come and experience Matinée.

What about locals? Do you get a lot of people from Las Vegas?

Paul: Yeah, we do. We get more and more locals every year. I think the locals have realized that this is something that’s in their town that they should feel they have some proprietary vibe over. Every year we get more and more people who really embrace the festival.

What else do you think would interest your partygoers?

Paul: We’ve just announced we’re now doing Matinée San Diego every Labor Day. We really want to kind of bookend, so to speak, and kick off the summer season with Matinée Las Vegas and end the summer season with Matinée San Diego, which is something we’re really excited about. We’ve had an unbelievable initial response to Matinée San Diego and we’re really hoping to create the same energy there that we’ve been able to do in Vegas.

Where can people see the lineup?

Jake: They can go to www.matineevegas.com and click the lineup tab.

You held a DJ contest. Has the winner been announced yet?

Paul: No, it should be announced in the next couple of weeks.

Jake: One of the things that makes Matinée unique is we’ve created new stars through this Matinée DJ contest. We encourage everyone to enter. We always put them at the main parties. So the winner has a chance to really take the biggest stage in Vegas.

Great! So is there anything else people might be surprised to learn?

Jake: We’re always quiet about this – we always give back to the community. Every year we team up with LifeBall, which is the world’s largest AIDS fundraiser. We make significant contributions to them. As well, in New York, we’ve teamed up with the Ali Forney Center and raised close to $50,000 this year with a calendar that we produced.

Amazing. So, any last messages for the locals in Las Vegas?

Paul: We would love them to come. Matinée Vegas is something we’re really proud of and we would like the locals to be really proud of it as well because it wouldn’t happen without their amazing city.

It’s a big thing for Vegas. It’s a big thing for the local LGBT community. We really want them there. We really want them to be a part of it.

I think at the beginning some of the locals weren’t sure what it was. Were maybe a little intimidated by it or thought it was a group coming in. We’re not a group coming in – we’re building something in Vegas. The Vegas aspect of Matinée could not be bigger.

Vegas is really our partner in crime in this event, so we really want the local community to feel as though this is their festival.

If you want to join the fun, May 22-25 are the dates to clear on your calendar! Visit www.matineevegas.com to book your hotel room and purchase tickets.