Founded by the late John Burrows in 2001 as, for the most part, a gathering of friends, Provincetown Bear Week has grown to be one of the biggest, if not the biggest, annual gathering of bears in the world. It runs Saturday to Saturday, July 13 to 20, 2024.
With an estimated 35,000 bears, bear chasers, and their friends and allies packing themselves into the tiny area at the northern tip of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, that’s a whole lot of man meat per square kilometre.
“It’s more like a bear invasion than a takeover,” says Frank Mahoney, president of the Provincetown Bears. (Mahoney, as he confesses in an interview, is not a bear himself; he describes himself as an admirer.) “The most fun for me is seeing everybody interact with each other, the sense of community. It doesn’t matter if you’re a big furry guy, a younger smooth guy, a younger chubby, an older daddy—you’ll always find somewhere to fit in. It brings together all the generations—older bears, newer bears, everybody in between.”
Bear Week is organized by a volunteer board that plans eight days of activities, ranging from a cruise to a market to a jazz brunch to a noodle night. Line dancing is new this year, and the themed parties include 1970s disco, ’80s dance, boxers and briefs, singlets and, as you would expect, leather. If it’s all too much to keep track of, just remember that a tea dance takes place every day of the festival at 4 p.m. at Boatslip Resort & Beach Club (161 Commercial St., Provincetown), and that the area underneath Boatslip has earned the nickname Dick Dock for what goes on there late at night, after the bars have closed.
Organizers also negotiate for perks at local businesses for registered attendees; the US$200 dog-tag pass get attendees into most official events without having to pay cover, as well as discounts at designated restaurants, shops and tours, a value which Mahoney estimates to be about US$645 for those who attend everything. Never mind the socializing—as Provincetown has gained a reputation as a pricey resort town, there’s real value to being a dog-tag holder during Bear Week.
“Our goal basically is to put together an affordable package. People bitch and moan about how expensive Provincetown is, but they keep coming back. In the survey we do at the end of Bear Week, when we ask what we can improve, they say the cost. When we ask what was the most fun, people say it’s the sense of belonging. When you walk down the street, people make eye contact, say hello. They hold the door open for you,” says Mahoney.
These days, many Provincetown accommodations ask for a minimum seven-night stay and fill up quickly. Visitors who book late may find themselves staying in Truro, Wellfleet or Orleans, which are, respectively, a 12-, 21- or 36-minute drive away.
Burrows, the founder, died in May 2023, so this is the first Bear Week to be planned without him. Burrows was a friendly, eccentric character, a historical design merchant who specialized in Victorian furnishings. The popular Sunday barbecue at Provincetown Inn (1 Commercial St., Provincetown), which is for pass-holders only, has been renamed the John Burrows Memorial BBQ in his honour. Provincetown Inn also hosts the Color Splash Bear Week Pool Party on July 15, which is one of the best-attended of the week’s events.
In planning this year’s festival, a process that took about nine months, Mahoney says the board always asked themselves what Burrows would do.
“This is Bear Week 2.0, the first without John, but as he envisioned it,” says Mahoney. “We’re kind of anxious—there are big shoes to fill. John had been adding more to attract a younger crowd, and the younger crowd is coming, so we have a couple of parties slated for them. We continue to act as a nonprofit, offering a good package while giving back to the town. We don’t make money off of this, just enough to do promotional things for next year’s event. Whatever we have in excess, we split between the Provincetown Fire Department and the soup kitchen.”
Provincetown hosts several themed weeks each year (Women’s Week is October 14 to 20, 2024; Trans Week is October 20 to 27). But Mahoney says local businesses, especially the restaurants, deeply appreciate the bears, who are usually not shy about enjoying their meals. “Though it hasn’t happened for a while, the first couple of Bear Weeks that we had, there were restaurants that ran out of food. Ironically, they’ve never run out of alcohol,” he laughs.
