Part of the Gay Fire Island Guide — bars, events & things to do.
Friday, July 31, 2026
Fire Island Pines, NY
Fire Island Pines, NY 11782The circuit parties, afterhours and official events happening across Pines Party in Fire Island — dates, venues and tickets.
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The ultimate LGBTQ+ guide to Fire Island — Cherry Grove, The Pines, nightlife, legendary events, beaches, and where to stay on America's original gay paradise.
Robbie S.
Where gay America actually spends Independence Day — from the Invasion of the Pines on Fire Island to Provincetown tea dances, Rehoboth's Poodle Beach, and beyond.
Robbie S.
Every July 4, drag queens sail from Cherry Grove to 'invade' the Fire Island Pines. In 2026 the Invasion turns 50. Here's the history, the timeline, and how to witness it.
Robbie S.Once a year, the beach in front of Fire Island Pines turns into a nightclub. Thousands of people, a sound system facing the Atlantic, a wall of production lighting against the dunes, and a sunrise that lands while the dancefloor is still full — that's Pines Party, and there's nothing else quite like it in America.
It's the headline weekend of New York's queer summer, a costume-driven, all-night beach rave that doubles as one of the most important fundraisers in LGBTQ+ Fire Island. In 2026 it runs July 31 through August 2, and whether you're a first-timer trying to figure out how this all works or a returning regular checking the lineup, this guide covers everything: the full schedule, tickets, how to actually get there, where to stay, what to wear, and the history behind it all.
Pro Tip
Pines Party closes out July and kicks off August every year — the last weekend of the month. It's the bookend to the season's other giant tradition, the [Invasion of the Pines on July 4](https://outxout.com/blog/fire-island-invasion-of-the-pines-2026). Together they frame the busiest stretch of the Fire Island summer.
Pines Party is an annual, weekend-long charity dance event in Fire Island Pines — most famous for its Saturday-night beach party, which has been described as the biggest, queerest all-night dance party on a beach in America. Picture a full circuit-party production — international DJs, towering light rigs, sunrise sets — staged directly on the sand, with the ocean as the backdrop and dancing that runs from 10 PM straight through dawn.
But it's more than a rave. Pines Party is a fundraiser at its core. Since 1999, it has raised over $4.8 million for its beneficiaries, and the proceeds support real, ongoing work: the Pines Foundation (which preserves and protects the Pines community itself), the Stonewall Community Foundation, and the Seashore Defense Fund. Through Stonewall's FIPPOA Fund alone, more than $1.2 million in grants has gone to dozens of LGBTQ+ organizations serving New York. When you buy a ticket, you're funding that.
The weekend has its own internal rhythm — a VIP kickoff Friday, a pool party and the headline beach party Saturday, and a morning party and closing party that carry you through Sunday. Each event has its own name, its own DJs, and its own costume theme.
See Everything Happening on Fire Island This Summer
Browse live events, venues, and the full Pines and Cherry Grove scene on Out x Out.
The 2026 edition runs Friday, July 31 through Sunday, August 2. Every year the weekend takes on an overarching creative concept, and 2026 leans mythological — a "transformative journey" through cultural myths and legends, where you're invited to "arrive as the myth you have always known yourself to be." Gods, tricksters, heroes, creatures, and monsters all welcome.
The centerpiece beach party carries the 2026 name Altar Ego. (If you've been before, you'll recognize the pattern: the beach party gets a fresh themed name each year — Dreamscape in 2025, Altar Ego in 2026.) Costumes aren't required, but they are the whole point — the crowd goes all-out, and half the experience is watching what everyone else dreamed up.
Five official events make up the weekend, each in a different spot around the Pines. Here's how it unfolds.
When: Friday, July 31, 7 PM – 10 PM | Where: Whyte Hall Community Center | DJs: Aaron Aanenson, Anthony Velez
The weekend opens with DIVINE, a VIP cocktail reception at Whyte Hall, the Pines' community arts center. It's the more intimate, dressed-up start to the weekend — included with VIP weekend passes — before the all-night events take over.
When: Saturday, August 1, 1 PM – 6 PM | Where: 236 Beach Hill Walk | DJs: Lakuti, Ben Wild, Josh Meltzer
Saturday afternoon belongs to LORE, the daytime pool party. It's the warm-up to the big night — swimwear, sun, and a deep-house-leaning lineup at a private house on Beach Hill Walk. Pace yourself here; the main event is still hours away.
When: Saturday, August 1, 10 PM – 6 AM | Where: On the beach | DJs: Avalon Emerson, Rimarkable, Joey with the Mustache
This is the one. Altar Ego is the reason most people come — eight hours of dancing on the open beach, from 10 PM until 6 AM, with full festival-grade production, mid-party performances, and a sunrise set that's become the weekend's signature moment. The crowd is in costume, the ocean is right there, and the energy peaks somewhere around the time the sky starts to lighten. If you do one event, do this one.
Pro Tip
No bags are permitted at the Beach Party — none. Plan your pockets accordingly: ID, wristband, phone, cash/card, and anything you absolutely need on you. Leave the backpack at the house.
When: Sunday, August 2, 5 AM – Noon | Where: The Pavilion and Tryst Pool Club | DJs: Shaun J Wright, IPOK, Jay Alexander
For the people who never went to sleep — and the ones who napped and rallied — TRANSCENDENCE is the Sunday morning party. It picks up at 5 AM as the beach party winds down and runs through noon across two of the Pines' best dance spaces, the Pavilion and the Tryst Pool Club. This is the heart of the weekend's "morning party" tradition, the oldest part of Pines Party's DNA (more on that below).
When: Sunday, August 2, 3 PM – 8 PM | Where: 236 Beach Hill Walk | DJs: David Harness, Tedd Patterson
SOLARIS sends the weekend off — a Sunday afternoon closing party back at the Beach Hill Walk house, with a soulful, classic-house lineup to bring everyone down gently before the ferries home. It's the long exhale after a very big weekend.
Pines Party's official events are ticketed beach and pool parties — but the island's bars are where the weekend spills over before and after. Sip·n·Twirl is the Pines' open-air dance bar and the unofficial afterparty HQ; the Pavilion is the harborfront club right off the ferry dock; and over in Cherry Grove, the Ice Palace and the Blue Whale keep the classic Fire Island nightlife going.
Fire Island, New York
Fire Island, New York
Fire Island, New York
Fire Island, New York
Pines Party tickets are sold through TicketFairy (buy them on the official 2026 ticket page), and they move fast — early-release tiers routinely sell out, and prices climb as each tier sells through. Buy as far ahead as you can. Here's how the ticket structure generally breaks down:
Pro Tip
Budget for the bar service charge: a small per-event (or per-weekend) fee is added on top of your ticket to tip the volunteer bar staff who keep the open bars running. It's separate from the ticket price, so factor it in.
Your ticket becomes a wristband that you wear all weekend. The organizers strongly encourage picking it up in advance at the Tryst Pool Club (off Picketty Ruff) on the Friday and Saturday of the weekend, typically midday to early evening — doing this saves you from a line at the door of each event. Wristbands are also available at the door if you arrive later. Bring a photo ID: this is a 21-and-over event, full stop, because the bars are open at every venue.
There are no cars on Fire Island, so getting to the Pines is a two-step trip: get to the town of Sayville on Long Island, then take a ferry across.
Pro Tip
Staying in Cherry Grove instead of the Pines? You don't need to go back to Sayville — water taxis run between the Grove and the Pines harbor all weekend, and the famous [Meat Rack](https://outxout.com/venue/themeatrackfireisland) boardwalk connects the two hamlets on foot in about 20 minutes. Plan your route home before the night gets late.
Pines Party weekend is one of the busiest of the entire season — accommodations book up months out and command peak rates. Most people do one of three things: rent a share in a Pines house, book a Pines hotel, or stay in nearby Cherry Grove and commute over.
Stay in the Pines to be steps from the beach party and the morning party. The Madison Fire Island Pines is the marquee hotel right in the harbor area, walkable to everything.
HotelFire Island, New York
Stay in Cherry Grove for (usually) better availability and rates, plus the Grove's own nightlife — then water-taxi or walk the Meat Rack over to the Pines for the parties. The historic Belvedere Guest House for Men is one of the most distinctive stays on the island.
HotelFire Island, New York
HotelFire Island, New York
For the full breakdown of guesthouses, hotels, and how house shares work, read our where to stay on Fire Island guide.
Pro Tip
No bed for the weekend? Pines Party is very doable as a day trip for the beach party — take a late ferry over Saturday evening and catch the special early-morning ferry back to Sayville. You'll miss the lazy daytime Pines experience, but you'll catch the part everyone comes for.
Costumes are the culture here. Each event has its own theme, and the 2026 mythology concept — gods, monsters, legends, creatures — gives you a lot of room to run. People genuinely commit: elaborate builds, body paint, full character. You will not feel overdressed.
A few practical notes: the beach party is on sand in the dark, so footwear and anything that could get lost matters. Because no bags are allowed at the beach party, your costume needs to be wearable for hours without a place to stash things. And the morning gets cool by the water even in August — a layer you can dance in helps when the sunrise set hits.
If this is your first Pines Party, the weekend rewards a little planning. The veterans all do roughly the same things:
Plan Your Pines Party Weekend
Find ferries, venues, and everything happening across Fire Island on the Out x Out app.
Pines Party didn't appear from nowhere — it inherited a tradition that runs back decades.
Its direct ancestor is the Morning Party, a beach fundraiser launched in 1983 to support Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC) during the height of the AIDS epidemic. The Morning Party itself drew on an even earlier event, 1979's "Beach," which the local press at the time called the most ambitious event ever staged on the barrier island. Through the 1980s and '90s, the Morning Party grew into a massive annual rager — moving to the beach in 1991 and drawing thousands — but negative press over drug use ultimately led GMHC to end its sponsorship after 1998.
That left a hole in the Pines' community fundraising. In 1999, a group of Pines residents created a new event to fill it, presenting the idea to the Fire Island Pines Property Owners' Association. The first edition was called "Pines 99" — a nod to Beach '79 — with the theme "Arabian Nights." It ran from 10 PM to sunrise and raised $500,000 in its very first year. The 2024 edition marked 25 years of Pines Party, and the event has now raised well over $4.8 million across its history.
That lineage is why the weekend still has a "morning party" at its center, and why the whole thing is structured as a charity benefit rather than just a promoter's club night. The party is also a memorial in spirit — a continuation of an event born in the worst years of the crisis, now thrown in celebration.
Pines Party is the season's biggest single event, but it's one of several landmark weekends. If you're building a Fire Island summer, here's how it fits:
For the entire season's lineup — tea dances, drag shows, bear and leather weekends, and every major party — see our complete Fire Island events guide. And to keep the night going beyond the official events, the Pines' late crowd heads to Sip·n·Twirl, the harbor's go-to for dancing past midnight.
Over in Cherry Grove, Cherry's On The Bay runs entertainment all weekend if you want a change of scene from the Pines.
Pines Party 2026 takes place Friday, July 31 through Sunday, August 2, 2026, in Fire Island Pines, NY. The headline beach party, Altar Ego, is on Saturday night, August 1, running from 10 PM until 6 AM.
Proceeds benefit the Pines Foundation, the Stonewall Community Foundation, and the Seashore Defense Fund. Since 1999, Pines Party has raised more than $4.8 million for LGBTQ+ causes and the preservation of Fire Island Pines.
Tickets are sold through TicketFairy in tiers — single-event general admission, weekend passes, VIP/premium upgrades, and cabana packages — with prices rising as each tier sells out. A separate bar service charge is added to tip the volunteer bar staff. Buy early; events routinely sell out in advance.
Take the LIRR to Sayville, then the Sayville Ferry to Fire Island Pines (about a 25-minute crossing, roughly $11 one-way). There are no cars on the island. During Pines Party weekend, the ferry runs extra late-night and early-morning trips so you can get back after the overnight events.
Yes. Pines Party is strictly 21+ because there's an open bar at every event. Bring a valid photo ID to pick up your wristband and to enter each party.
The morning party — named TRANSCENDENCE in 2026 — runs Sunday from 5 AM to noon at the Pavilion and Tryst Pool Club, picking up as the Saturday beach party winds down. It's the oldest tradition in the weekend, descended directly from the GMHC Morning Party of the 1980s and '90s.
Costumes are central. Each event has a theme, and 2026's overarching concept is mythology — gods, tricksters, monsters, and legends. The crowd goes all-out, so plan elaborate looks. Remember that no bags are allowed at the beach party, so your outfit needs to work without anywhere to stash things.
You can do it as a day trip for the beach party — take a late Saturday ferry over and catch a special early-morning ferry back to Sayville. To experience the full weekend (pool party, morning party, closing party), though, plan to stay in the Pines or nearby Cherry Grove, and book well ahead since rooms sell out months in advance.
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