LGBT athletes and their friends and fans will come together this weekend for the first annual WeHo Sports Festival.
The festival opens Friday with a registration event at the Andaz hotel from 5 to 10 p.m.. On Saturday and Sunday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. teams will compete in sports such as basketball, flag football, hockey, rock climbing, swimming, soccer, tennis, volleyball and water polo on UCLA’s Westwood campus.
The event is organized by the Los Angeles Volleyball Organization (LAVO), an organization founded in 2010 by Eric Gonzales and Ray Robles. The City of West Hollywood is one of the sponsors. Admission is free for spectators, who can register online. Athletes also can register for free online. The festival will conclude with an event Sunday night at The Abbey on Robertson Boulevard south of Santa Monica. Both spectators and athletes can get access to a VIP lounge and an open bar for $17.87.
WeHo Sports Festival is unable to provide specific times for specific sports events during the festival but suggests that spectators visit the various websites of the athletic groups to find that information. Those athletic groups are listed on the WeHo Sports Festival website. A copy of the event’s program also is available online.
This year’s festival will not include two of the West Hollywood-area’s most prominent LGBT sports organizations: WeHo Dodgeball and the Varsity Gay League, which offers bowling, kickball, soccer, tennis and volleyball to its 3,100 members.
“Our organization is excited by and supports the creation of anything that promotes LGBT sports in the LA community,” said Will Hacker of Varsity Gay League. “Our league had a planned multi-state kickball tournament in Palm Springs that took our energies away from this event. We celebrate West Hollywood 52 weeks a year, and really want to create opportunities for our players to meet other players around the country. But we wish them all the best and hope it’s a great success.”
“We were originally involved in the inception/ early development of the festival but it just didn’t work out logistically for us,” said Jake Mason of WeHo Dodgeball. “We are having a fun day of dodgeball mini tournament at Pan Pacific Park on Saturday in celebration of the festival.
