by andrew j stillman
When you start throwing parties at your house, the last thing you’re probably thinking of is turning it into a business, But that’s exactly what happened to James Wallen and Scott Vandegrift, which led them to open the pop-up event business known as Turn.
Turn will mark its fifth anniversary later this year, but it all started with a 2010 Pride party and will continue with another incredible three-day bender lined up for July 2024.
As for Wallen and Vandegrift, the couple initially moved to San Diego in 2018 by way of Seattle, where Wallen told The RAGE Monthly they were “blown away at just how friendly and welcoming everybody was.” As they became more part of the community, they started having barbecues and gatherings at their house, which wound up growing into after-parties to keep whatever celebration at hand going.
Their first Pride kickoff party in 2019 gathered 400 people at their home and made them realize that they had outgrown their dwelling and needed to hold their events in a larger space. At the time, they were friends with the man behind a monthly event called Overdrive and wanted to make sure they didn’t get in the way of any of his events, so they settled on their first official party on Black Friday of 2019.
“We wanted to create a way for people to actually interact with these parties and not just dance,” Wallen said. “We provided body-paint stations and people could paint each other, paint themselves. It was a good social icebreaker for people who didn’t know each other.”
A series of smaller events have grown Turn into the event holder that it is at the Encore Event Center in Kearney Mesa, but the growth came with its share of issues, considering the bulk of their launch happened right before the world shut down due to the COVID pandemic.
“We basically wiped out our savings account to get Turn off the ground,” Wallen said. “We bought all this equipment, we put money into forming the business, insuring the business, getting everything operating in the way that it should be, and then we were stuck.”
Once they regained their footing, the two always made sure to have some sort of charity involved with what they do, including work with Trevor Project and other nonprofits.
“We’re not really making money off this,” Wallen said. “We keep going because it’s something that we feel San Diego needs, and it is truly a community for us, where we’re giving the first city that made us feel and home and welcome and loved, we’re trying to give that back.”
Pride is always a great time to give that back, and the men behind Turn have an epic lineup planned for this year.
Drawn This Way will be the kickoff party on Friday night, July 19, that invites participants to grab their sexiest red harness, jockstrap or “whatever your heart desires” to dance to the beats of Brett Oosterhaus, Danny Verde and Morgan-J.
The Dip will be Saturday night, July 20, at the Event Center, and partygoers are encouraged to dress as their favorite villain with a recommended black and/or green attire. Music will be provided by Jesus Montanez, Oscar Velazquez and DJ Kitty Glitter.
The weekend will finish on Sunday, July 21, with Tune Town, the closing party filled with “lots of wacky, colorful, over-the-top cartoon craziness” as attendees are encouraged to dress as their favorite cartoon character or create one of their own. The music will be spun by DJ Alex Ramos, DJ GSP and DJ Kurtyka, who’s also the only local DJ in the lineup.
For added fun, Wallen and Vandegrift have also set up an arcade with lounges, as well as an indoor and outdoor dance area to help appeal to a broader range of musical interests.
Although Turn continues to grow year after year, Wallen said he doesn’t think that they’ll open up as a brick-and-mortar club anytime soon.
“For the time being, we definitely want to just stick with our pop-up events,” he said. “It’s apparent, if you go to any gay club on a Saturday night, that half the crowd is not actually gay. A way to truly maintain the gay space is to do these pop-up parties.” Not to say it would never happen, but more that they “won’t do anything that’s going to deviate from the feel of our events.”
Tickets will be available as a weekend pass or for individual dates, with prices varying based on tier and arrival time. turnsd.com/pride