By Cubby T
Gruff and ready gays have been earning their stripes at Hibearnation for the past twenty-seven years, and the legendary Show-Me Bears will make no exception of 2025. Spanning Halloween weekend from Thursday, October 30 through the wee hours of the morning on Monday, November 3, Hibearnation 28 will be stuffed with events for all breeds of bears and their admirers.
- Friday 10/31: Treat your trick to a Halloween Costume Ball at Bar:PM. Shuttle service between the Hibearnation Den (the Holiday Inn Downtown Convention Center) and Bar:PM will be provided, and a $500 prize will go to the best (least?) dressed!
- Saturday 11/01: It may be All Saints’ Day, but be on your most devilish behavior for the Leathermen’s Underwear Auction. Gorgeous specimen from the Rudis and Blue Max leather societies will be modeling the goods and eagerly waiting for auction winners to claim their new or well-seasoned boxers, briefs, and jocks.
- Saturday 11/01: Got outbid on the undies you wanted? Light a cleansing veladora and dance your woes away at the Day of the Dead After-Hours Party. Don your skeletal costumes or body paint, and if you’re up to something truly naughty, just make sure your ancestors aren’t watching…perhaps in an available dark room?
- Throughout the weekend: Looking to make new friends or bag a bear for the winter? Community banquets, strip poker tournaments (limited under-table seating available on request. Kidding!), lube wrestling, mosh play for your energetic pup, and an expertly-curated, kink-forward vendor mart will feature at the hotel’s Hibearnation Den throughout the event. Itching to get out and see STL’s sights? Make sure to stop by Club St. Louis for community lunches and special discounts on rooms – snag a Red Room spot while they’re available!
Packed with studs, cubs, pups, and buds, the Show-Me Bears throw one of the most stand-out, quintessential gay parties in the country every year, and while importing some of the hottest, grade-A midwestern beefcake would be reason enough, their philanthropic roots can’t be overlooked. Over their more than three decades of operation, the Bears have raised more than $1.5 million for charities benefiting everything from HIV care to housing equity.
Looking to support the community and join the action this Halloween? Run-pass tickets covering all events, drinks, and reduced hotel rates can be purchased through the Hibearnation event website at a special early-purchase rate through the end of May, so save your $50 to slip into the waistbands of those underwear models. A three-night After-Hours Pass and door-purchase Nightly Pass will also get you into the fun.
