This website will help you to understand just what TransWeek is and how it can benefit you. More than that, it will help you plan your trip. What should you bring? What shouldn’t you bring? How in the world will you get to Provincetown? Where will you stay? Will people laugh at you? Ignore you?  Will you meet others? Will they like you? How should you behave? You’ll have a thousand questions, and a thorough perusal of this site will answer many of them for you. Study the schedule, once it’s up (usually around June), and look at your meal choices when they go up in early September.

TransWeek Schedule of Events

Be sure to visit the site every now and again to check for news and updates. That will keep you in the know.

News and Updates

Remember– the earlier you register, the lower the price! We have a discount for Canadian citizens, and a discount for spouses and significant others.

Register for TransWeek

TransWeek maintains an official page on Facebook. You can visit to see announcements and updates. It’s an official source for press releases.

Visit the Official TransWeek FaceBook Page

We also have a discussion group on Facebook. Please join. There you can chat with other Fair-goers. Don’t be shy. The other members will be happy to answer any questions you might have. Ask to join; A moderator will approve you within hours. You can visit the page by clicking on the Facebook symbol at the top or bottom of every page on this site, or by clicking the button below.

TransWeek Discussion Group

Did you know TransWeek has a Twitter handle? Yes, we do! We’re soooo twenty-first century!  Our handle is #FanFairNow. It’s a place to go for the latest information. During Fair week, the Twitter feed will be filled with last-minute changes in schedule and venue, lost items, and people trying to find other people to go to dinner with them. You can visit by clicking the Twitter symbol (the bird) at the top of this and every page, or the larger symbol at the bottom of the page–or just click the button below.

Visit #FanFairNow on Twitter!

Before TransWeek you can use the TransWeek Discussion Group as a virtual bulletin board. Throughout the year, we publish monthly newsletters newsletters full of news and information about TransWeek. You can jump on over to the Mail Chimp site and sign up; just click on the button below. Don’t worry, your e-mail will not be used for any other purpose than distribution of the newsletter. If you don’t wish to sign up, just select the News tab on this site; you’ll see the newsletters there.

View Past Newsletters

Sign Up for the TransWeek Newsletter

Our mentoring program has historically been called Big Brother/Big Sister, but that didn’t work for nonbinary people. We are now simply using mentor, as Big Sibling sounds sort of dorky. Whether you’re trans or nonbinary or genderqueer, we’ll do our best to match you with someone appropriate. Your mentor can help you before TransWeek by chatting with you on Facebook or by e-mail or perhaps by phone. They’ll answer your questions and give you moral support. At TransWeek, they can help you find the courage to come out of your room and get to that event you’re dying to go to. They’ll help you with your appearance and wardrobe, if you wish, and introduce you to other Fairgoers.

Our mentoring program for significant others is facilitated by Jolie LaValle. Mentoring for trans and nonbinary attendees is facilitated by Tina Simmons. Tina and Jolie will compile a list of requests and assign appropriate mentors in September. When will be available to answer your questions and offer moral support in the weeks before the Fair.

Jolie and Tina will be announced at the orientation brunch and will be available there and throughout the Fair to offer emotional and social support, and, of course, advice, if you want it.

To request a mentor, check the appropriate box on the registration form, or send an e-mail to mentor@fantasiafair.org.

 

Request a Mentor

On Monday morning, 8:30 am, plan to be at the Crown & Anchor, 161 Commercial Street for our sumptuous and leisurely orientation brunch. Sit at a table with others and introduce yourself, fill you plate at breakfast buffet, and chat with your newfound friends. After you eat, tour the tables, saying hello to others. It’s the perfect way to make others aware of you and sow the seeds of friendship.

Some time around ten, Dee LaValle will begin the orientation. She will introduce key personnel and go through the many activities of the Fair. Pay attention, and you’ll have the tools you need to plan a full and fulfilling Fantasia Fair.

When the orientation ends (about 11:15 am), a number of things will happen:

Volunteer Planning

A great way to meet people and dive right in is to volunteer. Its the ultimate ice breaker for yourself. Right after the presentation we will hold a brief meeting with Fairgoers who wish to give back to TransWeek. We need people to keep counts at lunches, collect tickets at our evening events, make deposits at the bank, and help us take down the TransWeek office on Saturday afternoon. Please consider attending! The meeting will take place in the Paramount Room

Meet Your Mentor

Second, mentoring program coordinators Jolie Lavalle and Tina Simmons, who will have been pointed out to you during the orientation, will meet with those who have asked for a mentor and those who have signed up to be mentors. You’ll be introduced to your mentor. This meeting will also take place in the Paramount Room. If you didn’t ask for a mentor but think you might want one, please attend. (We used to call our mentoring program our Big Brother / Big Sister program, but some attendees identify outside the binary. Mentor is non gender-specific and works for everyone.)

Walking Tour of Provincetown

At 11:30 am, Carrie Lopes will conduct a walking tour of Provincetown. The city has a fascinating history. Did you know the pilgrims’ first landing was less than a mile from where you just finished breakfast?

Significant Others Lunch

Partners and spouses of trans and gender-nonbinary attendees will meet at noon at the Lobster Pot Restaurant, 321 Commercial Street for a dutch treat lunch. Usually partners form a group and walk with coordinator Jolie LaValle from the Paramount Room.

Registration

If you arrived late on Sunday or early Monday, the TransWeek office will be open Monday from 11:45 am until 1:00 pm and 3:00 – 5:00 pm, and from 9:00 – 11:00 and 3:00 – 5:00 pm the rest of the week (closed Saturday afternoon, but please drop by to help tear down the office). The office is at the Boatslip Inn, 161 Commercial Street.

 

Tuesday through Saturday, we feature morning meetings that can help orient first-time attendees. From 9:00 – 9:45 am there is a meet and greet for trans and nonbinary attendees of TransWeek, facilitated by Cody Suzuki and Tina Simmons and held in the Cabaret Room in the Crown & Anchor, 247 Commercial Street

Concurrent meet and greets for significant others, facilitated by Jolie LaValle, are held in Room 201 of the Crown & Anchor, 247 Commercial Street. Just go up the ramp and take the stairs or elevator upstairs. Room 201 is at the top of the stairs, to the left.

Both meetings are great places for first-timers to meet and get to know returning attendees, and vice-versa. We will have coffee service at both of the meet and greets.

Note: Friends of Bill W. meetings also run concurrently, but are a bit longer, ending at 9:55. They’re held across the street from the Crown & Anchor in the Unitarian Universalist Meeting House, 236 Commercial Street.

The Pink Fog is a term historically used by TransWeek to describe a state of exuberance exhibited by many first-time attendees. Being free to be the person you have always wanted to be, for an entire week and in complete freedom, is empowering and exhilarating. Many attendees, and especially first-timers, return home in a state of rapture. Our Pink Fog workshops discuss this state of bliss and suggest a cooling-off period before making life-altering personal decisions.

Long-time attendee Liz Winter will be facilitating a workshop on the subject. Lost in the Pink Fog, is scheduled for Saturday, October 23, from 3:00 – 4:30.

Liz will describe the pink fog and its effects and encourage attendees to describe feelings that have arisen during the Fair.

The pink fog affects transmen and nonbinary genderfolk just the same as it affects transgender women. We know it’s not an appropriate name, and will soon be renaming it, but you have to admit it’s pretty cool. We mean no disrespect as we continue to use the name as we try to come up with an equally cool and more socially correct term. Thank you for bearing with us.

Here’s a short booklet produced by attendee Allana after her first Fair. The Fair’s structure has changed in some ways (for instance, all activities are now within easy walking distance), but otherwise, it’s entirely relevant.

Allana’s Guide for First-Timers