Puerto Vallarta, Mexico – Bearadise® is proud to welcome, once again, DJ, producer, artist and Billboard #1 Remixer, Matt Consola for Bear Pride, which is in conjunction with Vallarta Pride. This yearly party takes place 20-28 May 2023, and the events are centered in Zona Romantica.
This year’s theme is: Be Proud of Your Nature. Not only the physical beauty of Puerto Vallarta, but your own natural beauty as well. The city opens it arms to the LGBT+ community. Around 20,000 visitors are expected.
Clubbing is a huge part of the activities during Pride and Matt will be mixing for some of them. You can find him at ‘Daddy Issues’, the ‘Dirty Disco Pool Party’ and he will be presenting his “Funky Bear” set at Bearadise® Beach, which highlights disco, 80s, funk and nu-disco. It will be non-stop dancing for sure. Matt always enjoys playing and working in Vallarta.
“It’s the laid back atmosphere,” says Matt, “while there is so much to do and see, if excursions are your thing, you can easily just kick back, enjoy the weather, the water and relax. Pride in Vallarta for me is as much vacation as a work trip.” He says that for most gigs he rushes in, plays the show and then rushes out.
In Puerto Vallarta, he really gets time to meet the people coming to your parties as well as those throwing the parties. He goes on to say that he really feels like part of the community and the experience feels less like just being talent. Matt has been playing parties around the world for over two decades and a family member helped him get hooked.
His straight cousin was a DJ in New York working at Studio 54 and The Palladium. He was a teenager and his cousin would take him vinyl record shopping and started showing Matt how to mix music and it just felt like instinct. There was never that “I think I want to become a DJ” Epiphany… it just happened naturally.
And, like a lot of DJs, Matt started by working weddings and corporate parties. When he got to college local radio was the answer to his musical passion. While working for a huge alternative station in San Francisco called Live 105 he would get sent out to the clubs to mix the sets while the on-air DJ worked the crowd. Matt said that watching and feeling the crowds respond to what he was playing was intoxicating.
He began headlining in the early 1990s and playing the legendary San Francisco clubs, like Universe, Pleasuredome, 1015 Folsom, The End Up, The Edge, and Metropolis, to name just a few. As his star grew, he began playing mega-parties and week-long festivals including The White Party (Palm Springs), Winter Party (Miami), Hotlanta & Southern Decadence in New Orleans. But it wasn’t enough to just perform, he wanted to remix and produce.
Eventually Matt started working with other DJs, producers, and artists. And now he owns Swishcraft Music, which is America’s Largest LGBTQAI+ owned and operated dance label. He produces and promotes his signed artists but also produces official remixes for major label artists from Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande, Doja Cat, and Dua Lipa to Beck, Katy Perry, Heather Small (M People) and The Freemasons. After all these years he still loves his job.
Matt says he has a need to keep producing and entertaining people. “Back in 2015 I sold my home in San Francisco and moved up to Portland, Oregon essentially to semi-retire and live a slower life,” laughs Matt, “but very quickly I found myself yearning to be in the thick of producing new music, remixing new music and performing for people. I’m just not ready to stop. I’d love to find a better balance of work and personal life, but that I have not achieved yet.”
Organizers with Bearadise® are glad he is visiting PV once again to get the crowds dancing and continuing his music and mixing excellence.