Nude-A-Palooza IV
by Philip Chien
The Cypress Cove nudist resort in Kissimmee Florida held their "Nude-A-Palooza" music festival in October as a charity event to raise funds for breast cancer awareness. The concert featured seven tribute bands - amateur and professional performers who play songs by famous musicians. Event organizers said that they raised over $17,000 in ticket sales for breast cancer awareness.
This is the fourth year the resort has held its music festival and it's grown each year. This year's concert had an added boost in attendance since it was scheduled just before a nude cruise and many participants combined the concert with the cruise.
The bands performed music by the Beatles, John Denver, Simon and Garfunkle, Styx, Pink Floyd, Queen, and AC/DC. The Beatles band, Beatlebeat was quite good, although all of the musicians were right-handed. In real life Paul McCartney has always played his guitar left-handed. In contrast the Simon and Garfunkle duo, 59th street bridge, seemed to go for accuracy with the Garfunkle member wearing a wig with wild curly hair. Of the bands I saw I was least impressed with the John Denver performer (he sang a bit off key on many songs) and most impressed with the Simon and Garfunkle duo.
The concert attendees included full-time residents at the resort, daytime visitors who come to the resort on a regular basis, and folks who rented campsites for the weekend. In addition the concert was opened to the public and consider "clothing optional" - each attendee could decide whether to remain clothed or go nude, and how much clothing to wear. Tans ranged from Casper (totally white skin from folks who rarely see any sunlight), cottontails (ones with tans, except on bodyparts normally covered with clothing or bathing suits), and Donald Ducks (only wearing a shirt with nothing below the waist) to totally tanned bodies. Some nudists do enjoy body modifications - tattoos or piercings; and often in very tender places.
The nudists you see in nudist magazines and brochures generally have extremely appealing bodies, just as most of the actors in television shows and movies have appealing bodies. They do exist at nudist resorts, but most people have ordinary bodies - with some extra fat, scars, and other imperfections. Non-nudists are often uncomfortable when they first arrive because they are self conscious about their bodies, but quickly relax when they see that their bodies are no worse than any of the others who are there.
Cameras were extremely restricted at the concert with prominent signs warning that photography, even just of the bands, was prohibited. Because there's so much abuse with hidden cameras taking photos of nudists for posting on the Internet many nudists are concerned about their privacy. Besides the possibility of an employer or friend accidentally coming across a nude photo there's the serious concern that non-sexual nude photos will be placed on pornography websites. All of the photos in this article were taken under the supervision of an escort from the Cypress Cove resort with the subject's permission. In a couple of cases nudists asked why we had cameras and were assured by the escort that it was allowed and no photos of them would be taken without permission.
One of the more unusual places at Cypress Cove is the American Nudist Research Library. It's technically a separate non-profit entity, but located on Cypress Cove's property. The library is staffed by volunteers, mostly regulars at the resort. It's proud of its collection of over 7,000 nudist magazines going back to the 1920s. There's a major project underway to digitize the entire collection to preserve it indefinitely. When this reporter visited the librarian was examining a faded yellow 1960s mainstream newspaper which had an article on nudism.
The library proudly displays its 2004 Ig Nobel prize in LITERATURE. The Ig Nobel prizes were established by a humor club at Harvard University to present gag awards to organizations and individuals for unusual unique achievements which should be never duplicated in the future. The citation for the library's Ig Nobel prize reads, "The American Nudist Research Library of Kissimmee, Florida, USA, for preserving nudist history so that everyone can see it."
Special thanks to the staff and volunteers at Cypress Coves, especially Carolyn Hawkins, for their assistance with this article.
Links
Cypress Cove Nudist Resort & Spa
4425 Pleasant Hill Road
Kissimmee, FL 34746
888-683-3140
American Nudist Research Library.
Our coverage of last year's Nude-A-Palooza.
About the author
Philip Chien enjoys taking off his clothes every now and then.
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