Entertainment Options in Gay Puerto Vallarta

Heading to Puerto Vallarta this month? Exciting! Are you going to find all sorts of entertainment options while you are here? Well, it all depends on what you expect and what other seasoned Puerto Vallarta visitors may have told you.

If you have done a bit of research, you probably already know that most of the things you might like to enjoy as an LGBTQ+ tourists, from great dining to live shows and nightlife, are neatly and readily available to you within walking distance for the most part, in a neighborhood called Emiliano Zapata. Here you’ll find a number of bars that offer live entertainment, from drag queen performances to talent competitions to karaokethons. A handful of cabaret-style performance venues feature headliners from Provincetown, New York City and several cruise lines making their rounds in town.

But not this time of year. Most international entertainers are elsewhere. Even some great local bands follow suit and can be found posting Facebook updates from Provincetown, Key West and Ogunquit. You see, this is the hottest time of year and many folks who can’t handle the heat head elsewhere. Including entertainers.

How do the aforementioned venues survive through the summer? By booking local acts. So, if you are open to the idea of enjoying locals doing their thing in Spanish and sometimes in English, you may be pleasantly surprised.

On the other hand, if top names from the New York cabaret stage or former Drag Race finalists are high on your priority list, you may want to reschedule your trip or perhaps open your eyes to other forms of entertainment more suitable for those truly looking to immerse themselves in the cultural fabric of a foreign country. A subtle paradigm shift can make your September vacation absolutely memorable!

Heat and humidity aside—the whole western hemisphere seems to be struggling with it—Puerto Vallarta offers a broad variety of entertainment options starting with mariachi music. Not only is it a genre of music that dates back to the 18th Century, it was born in our state and has been considered an Intangible Cultural Heritage by the UNESCO since 2011. But please, don’t check-off mariachi from your wish list because you saw a couple of musicians making attempting to collect tips on the beach.

A proper mariachi experience has to be a sit-down affair, at a performance venue ot at the very least, a restaurant featuring a full ensemble. There are a handful of such restaurants in town, and the finest bands in the city make their rounds from one restaurant to another, performing live on different days, including Sunday brunch. You will have to leave the comfort of Emiliano Zapata for such adventures, however.

September is Mexico’s Independence Month, with Independence Day celebrated on September 15 in the evening, and then the following day. On those specific days, there are always impressive fireworks displays on the eve of, and then spectacular military and charro parades the following morning—lots of eye candy, if you catch my drift!

Perhaps the best form of entertainment in town this time around is the more mundane; the type of entertainment you can only perceive if you open your senses to it with mindful intention; the type you can enjoy while you are walking out and about taking in the sights and sounds of the city.

As you walk around, you may register the echoing sound of a whistle over and over. That’s the ambulant knife sharpener. And their whistle sounds the same all throughout Mexico. At night, a different whistle dominates. That’s the ambulant corn and tamale vendor, keeping his food warm with a portable wood furnace, its whistle coming alive with steam. Walk past a tortilla making shop and be mesmerized by the intricate machinery that keeps an entire country well fed and talk about another immediately recognizable sound wherever you go. Walk into a mercado and listen to vendors chanting their daily offers. Sit on a bench on the boardwalk and people watch.

Remember: it’s a different country; a different culture; a different way of life. If you take the time to appreciate it, you’ll be thoroughly entertained.

Catch up with Paco Ojeda live Monday – Saturday at 10:30 am local time on his talk show, “Coffee & Headlines,” where he shares headlines and stories for Puerto Vallarta’s local English-speaking community. facebook.com/pacoojedalive