A little before noon last Saturday, a smattering of boats began chugging across Lake Michigan from various directions to a point about 200m offshore. Anyone driving by on Lake Shore Drive, which bends around miles of lakefront, would not have noticed anything unusual; just another summer scene. An hour or so later, though, what had been a random group of a dozen or so boats had turned into a sprawling armada.
Hundreds of boats, from million-dollar yachts to speedboats to fishing dinghies, had merged with rubber rafts, water trampolines and makeshift docks into roughly five connected chains bobbing across a no-wake zone unofficially known as the Playpen.
It was the annual summer boat party sponsored by Chicago Scene magazine, a larger and more promotional version of the smaller but no less bacchanal gatherings that have been taking place just north of the Navy Pier here most weekend days for the past several summers.
"Where else can you go and get a view like this and have a party on water?" asked Frank Montana, 34, a Playpen regular, as he waved his arm toward the skyline behind him from his 40-foot Sea Ray Express Cruiser.
In one undulating line of boats, several small to medium-size yachts were bound together in the center of one cluster. Banners spelling out the name of local clubs hung from their sides, and coordinated sound systems blared music from local DJs.
In the surrounding boats, bikini-clad women tried to stay upright as they danced on slippery runners or hopped from boat to boat looking for better drinks. Others tumbled onto giant floating trampolines or fired meter-long squirt guns at one another. On a few boats, grills were being fired up.
disk jockeys
Fueled by wealthy boat owners and the young women they and their boats can attract, the daytime parties have become a magnet for local nightclub owners and promoters who use the scene to draw people to their clubs once the sun sets. Last year club owners upped the ante by ferrying DJs out to spin during the day.
"It's like maximum exposure," Jason Kalendr, 28, better known in the club scene as DJ Kalendr, said during a break from spinning tracks one recent Saturday, his baseball cap turned ever-so-slightly sideways.
"Everyone who is in this business is out on the lake," says.
He, like any well-known Chicago DJ, spins for free on the lake. And it's hard to imagine a more perfect confluence of money, skin and exhibitionism.
"I bought 11 bikinis for the summer alone," said Jamie Coates, 23, a model who took time from comparing breast sizes with a friend to talk to a reporter. She's been going to clubs since she was 18-years-old.
"Been there, done that. This is something new, something real," she says.
For boat owners it's a ticket to Girls Gone Wild come to life. Montana, a demolition and excavation contractor, plays host to 30 to 50 people every weekend (last Saturday he had 57) on his boat. He refers to his party as "Club Montana" and has already burned out one smoke machine this summer.
Joey Vartanian, an owner of the Chicago Crobar, said he has been a boater for 20 years but only started taking Loonacy, his 44-foot Sea Ray, to the Playpen to promote his club in the last two years. Though he thought last Saturday's blowout might put a damper on the evening's club scene.
core group
"The Playpen scene mobilizes people to party all weekend long," he said.
"It creates a core group that later show up at your club, and they are great wallpaper," he said. "I see the same people in my club on Friday night, on the boat Saturday, in the club Saturday night and sometimes even on the lake on Sunday."
Last Saturday, Vartanian and his business partner held parties on Loonacy and two other boats they had chartered, including a 21-footer dubbed the Crobar Special Ops Boat, which was filled with well-toned men and women in skimpy camouflage suits spraying guests with water "machine guns."
Ray Poe, a 38-year-old real estate developer, has seen how a US$400,000 investment in a 43-foot Carver motor yacht can pave the way for an extravagant life after hours. He bought the boat earlier this year on a whim and now he has some 30 people most weekend days on his boat -- about 20 of them women -- and hauls sound equipment, along with vodka, beer and ice for Brian Pfeiffer, a promoter for a club called Surreal Chicago. In return, he is welcomed into the VIP rooms of many clubs in town.
"When you own a boat, everyone is your new friend," Poe said.
While the Playpen area has always been a popular spot to drift, swim and enjoy the skyline, locals say the scene has become a destination to drink and socialize only in the last few years.
Looking at the scene last Saturday, Ted Widen, publisher of Chicago Scene and the architect of the day's event, tried to count the boats.
"It's exhausting," he said, recalling the last six years of parties. "We thought a few years back when there were five to 10 boats, fine. Then there were 50 and we thought it couldn't get bigger than this. But the next year, there were a hundred. It's just nuts."
This year police estimate that more than 500 boats showed up.
DEFENDING DEMOCRACY: Taiwan shares the same values as those that fought in WWII, and nations must unite to halt the expansion of a new authoritarian bloc, Lai said The government yesterday held a commemoration ceremony for Victory in Europe (V-E) Day, joining the rest of the world for the first time to mark the anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. Taiwan honoring V-E Day signifies “our growing connections with the international community,” President William Lai (賴清德) said at a reception in Taipei on the 80th anniversary of V-E Day. One of the major lessons of World War II is that “authoritarianism and aggression lead only to slaughter, tragedy and greater inequality,” Lai said. Even more importantly, the war also taught people that “those who cherish peace cannot
Taiwanese Olympic badminton men’s doubles gold medalist Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) and his new partner, Chiu Hsiang-chieh (邱相榤), clinched the men’s doubles title at the Yonex Taipei Open yesterday, becoming the second Taiwanese team to win a title in the tournament. Ranked 19th in the world, the Taiwanese duo defeated Kang Min-hyuk and Ki Dong-ju of South Korea 21-18, 21-15 in a pulsating 43-minute final to clinch their first doubles title after teaming up last year. Wang, the men’s doubles gold medalist at the 2020 and 2024 Olympics, partnered with Chiu in August last year after the retirement of his teammate Lee Yang
The Philippines yesterday criticized a “high-risk” maneuver by a Chinese vessel near the disputed Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島) in a rare incident involving warships from the two navies. The Scarborough Shoal — a triangular chain of reefs and rocks in the contested South China Sea — has been a flash point between the countries since China seized it from the Philippines in 2012. Taiwan also claims the shoal. Monday’s encounter took place approximately 11.8 nautical miles (22km) southeast” of the Scarborough Shoal, the Philippine military said, during ongoing US-Philippine military exercises that Beijing has criticized as destabilizing. “The Chinese frigate BN 554 was
US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer began talks with high-ranking Chinese officials in Switzerland yesterday aiming to de-escalate a dispute that threatens to cut off trade between the world’s two biggest economies and damage the global economy. The US delegation has begun meetings in Geneva with a Chinese delegation led by Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰), Xinhua News Agency said. Diplomats from both sides also confirmed that the talks have begun, but spoke anonymously and the exact location of the talks was not made public. Prospects for a major breakthrough appear dim, but there is
RSS