Vice or Vindication? Winter Party Festival "circles the wagons" in its ongoing dispute with DJ Peter Rauhofer; by John Kater
Miami, FL, February 3: For years, Grammy Award-winning DJ Peter Rauhofer has been one of the most popular DJs in South Florida and throughout the party Circuit. His events have made tens of thousands of dollars for club owners and charities alike, while packing fans from around the world into his events.
Rauhofer’s popularity has remained extremely high despite his refusal this year to work with the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s Winter Party Festival, a non-profit event held in South Florida, over disputes with their administration. Complicating matters again this year is Winter Party Festival’s close association with Rauhofer nemesis and South Florida club promoter Hilton Wolman. Just a few years back, the promoter ran busses from a sanctioned HIV/AIDS fundraising event featuring Rauhofer to his own produced and unsanctioned events at the now failed Twilo Nightclub in Miami. Rauhofer has not quickly forgotten Wolman's actions. Rauhofer's Work events have also encompassed other talent and typically create a sell-out for the venue.
This year’s Winter Party Festival has now begun to seek outside help in ending Rauhofer’s competing event by putting political pressure on the DJ, his contracted venues and anyone who might suggest they don’t agree with the Task Force’s political tactics. The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force sent an open letter to Rauhofer and a Miami Beach nightclub owner last week complaining that the competition was an assault on the entire community. The letter, signed by local South Florida partners of Winter Party Festival, was sent to over 100 media outlets around the US. The “open” letter was reportedly not directly sent to Rauhofer nor The Opium Group, owner of the popular Mansion and Cameo nightclubs used in the past to work with Winter Party Festival. This year, the Opium Group refused to work with The Task Force’s Winter Party Festival, leaving the organization scrambling for smaller and much less-desirable venues. In fact, Rauhofer’s agreement with the Opium Group specifies exclusivity for the next two years.
The open letter to Rauhofer and the venue closes this way:
“While we realize that your plans for 2010 are already in place, we hope that, equipped with a better understanding of what Winter Party Festival means to our local community, you will not sponsor a competing party next year. We also hope that you will consider making one of your venues available to the Task Force in 2011. In the meantime, we ask you to support the Festival and its mission of raising funds for the LGBT community by making a sizeable donation to the Task Force.”
Despite the open letter’s apparent conciliatory tone with regards to Rauhofer’s 2010 event, the campaign against him has gotten more ugly. The Miami Herald’s Steve Rothaus, who had been refused an interview earlier in the week, jumped into the fray using the Herald as a backdrop for a public battle cry against Rauhofer. Rothaus’ article and the Task Force’s “open letter” were also placed on an anti-Rauhofer website created as recently as February 2, 2010 and registered anonymously. The “StopPeter.com” website states that it was “created and paid for by concerned members of the LGBT community” and is prominently featured in Rothaus’ column. Also, many comments in support of Rauhofer have disappeared since the column first appeared online, drawing outcries of censorship.
Eyebrows were raised at the open letter’s complaint about The Opium Group’s exclusivity with Rauhofer and the venue owner’s desire not to work with the Task Force. The letter suggested the actions of the DJ and venue were a reason for Winter Party’s past and future losses. Using figures as high as 33%, the Winter Party Festival’s Chad Richter blames Rauhofer and his contracted venue for the loss. Richter claims the venue and DJ are trying to run the Winter Party Festival “off the beach”.
Despite the public pressure for an end to Opium Group’s exclusivity, the Task Force itself in embroiled in a media exclusivity scandal which exposed the Task Force’s own preferential treatment and granting of exclusivity to a Los Angeles magazine, locking out other South Florida-based media from receiving any advertising revenue and preventing any sponsorship opportunities in 2010.
JustCircuit, co-producer of last year’s sanctioned Friday event, offered to mediate the Rauhofer/Task Force dispute in early 2009, but the suggestion fell on deaf ears with the Task Force steadfastly refusing to even consider working with Rauhofer for any sanctioned event whatsoever. This year, Winter Party’s Richter has made numerous attempts to convince Rauhofer to actually work with the event weekend and having failed, is now leading the attack against the DJ and the venues. Richter has suggested that future Winter Party Festival events are in jeopardy, according to the Rothaus’ Miami Herald article. The Task Force’s own Deputy Director of External Relations Russell Roybal contradicts Richter’s assumption that future events are in jeopardy saying that the Task Force will not pull out of South Florida but hinting they still might do things differently next year.
The supporters of the negative campaign against Rauhofer have yet to address why numerous other venues around South Florida can’t be successfully utilized to hold Winter Party events. The total financial impact to the South Florida community also fails to address the additional revenues realized by local hotels, restaurants and even other Winter Party Festival events as a result of Rauhofer’s popular party. The issue of exclusivity, which the Task Force itself supports against other would-be supporters, is not considered or discussed. Other nightclubs, including Score and Mova (formerly Halo), which are hosting sanctioned parties during the Winter Party Festival, will remain open and in direct competition with other sanctioned events during the weekend.
DJ Offer Nissim, WORK Miami
Rauhofer’s March 7 event at Mansion Nightclub in South Beach will continue forward featuring DJs Offer Nissim and Marco DaSilva. Other Work events around the country continue to prove the product to be a huge success as well. With the public attention clearly focused on the competitive events, all eyes will be on attendance at both and will most likely dictate any future discussions. It was revealed Thursday evening that friends of the Task Force are planning to stage a "union strike-styled picket" of the Rauhofer event at Mansion to protest and discourage attendees at the door from entering the building. It remains unclear as to whether the Task Force is organizing the protest and as to whether or not Miami Beach Police will be on the scene to keep the peace. JustCircuit will provide continuing details of this story as they develop.
