Introducing Coming Out Cancun– What, When, Where and Why?
Introducing Coming Out The first and only annual gay festival to be held on the beautiful white sand beaches of Cancun, Mexico!
Coming Out will take place in Cancun Mexico and it will be the ultimate VIP experience for our guests. This is officially our inaugural event and we could not be more excited to help Cancun “come out” in a big way! We have a long weekend planned that is filled with lifestyle pop-ups, excursions and exclusive events at all of Cancun’s hottest nightclubs and venues! Our goal is to bring together the international gay community to celebrate freedom, expression and brotherhood in paradise.
Let me give you some background on myself. My name is Ashley Verrill. I have been in the travel industry for over 10 years, and I moved to Cancun in 2009. I am the owner and founder of After Dark Events & Entertainment in Cancun and Puerto Vallarta Mexico. We are one of the leading VIP event agencies for international travel and we pride ourselves on our connections to our clients as well as our dedication to customer service above all else. I employ a diverse and amazing staff from all over the world and this platform is what encouraged the creation of Coming Out, along with my own personal experience while living in Mexico.
A couple years into living abroad, I began coaching (volunteering) competitive cheerleading in the local downtown “parques”. My cheerleading squads were filled with mostly young adult men in the gay community. I coached many teams throughout my time in Cancun and it was always the same thing; If my team had 35 people on it, 30 were male. These athletes were EXTREMELY talented, so loving and so appreciative that an American would drive deep into downtown Cancun every day and coach them without asking for anything in return. Through coaching in the area, the gay community became a large part of my every-day life and I found it astonishing that I wasn’t aware of its size and overwhelming presence until deciding to volunteer.
Cancun is a destination known for its nightlife and celebration! Through observation, I noticed there weren’t predominant gay bars or pride parades/celebrations of any sort in Cancun’s hotel zone. Coming from New York, where I grew up, gay-focused events and festivals were celebrated regularly. I thought to myself, why not Cancun? It’s of one the most amazing tourist destinations in the world, so why not create an event to show Cancun the love and kinship that we experience in the states consistently! Love is love. It is to be celebrated. It is to be recognized. I feel very fortunate to have the means and the platform to do so, and we have very high hopes that this event will be a raging success, allowing us to celebrate this amazing community both locally and internationally, in the most loud and proud way possible!
Ever travel to a new place, look around and have one of those “ah ha” moments? I certainly have. You tend to see the bigger picture when you’re not in your comfort zone and I believe that travel is one of the greatest ways to unleash your true self. This life is a journey of inner-discovery, and for the gay community, the coming out process is a big part of that. This is where the name for our festival came from and this is why a portion of our proceeds benefit The Trevor Project; the leading national organization that provides crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to LGBTQ+ youth.
We hope that you will join us for our new and amazing event weekend! Coming Out will be here before you know it, so get your tickets TODAY! https://comingoutfestival.com/reserveyourpackage/
Any questions or inquiries can be written to us at info@comingoutfestival.com
