Pop Twink Joey Suarez on the Cancun party scene and vaccination hesitancy

An effective artist knows when and how to adapt.

So when the pandemic pulled the plug on live touring, millennial musician Joey Suarez took his talents to Tiktok. But once the Texas-born twink was fully vaccinated, he shuffle-stepped his act down to Cancun for the iconic annual gay dance party Utopia to blow off some much-needed steam.

In order to glean a global perspective of queer culture outside of the US during covid, we kiki’ed with Joey about Cancun, vaccination hesitancy in his hometown San Antonio, and advice for performers adjusting to a post-Covid entertainment industry.

 

What’s Cancun like at the moment, what’s open?

To be quite honest, the things we went to were events that were quarantined off from the rest of the public. Of course, groceries were open. Nothing really else. There was maybe one restaurant that was open. I think that was preferred, staying indoors and keeping to yourselves.

What events did you attend?

I went to Utopia, which was really nice. It was a fun event because they took precautions. From what I understand there were no Covid cases that came from it.

 

How would you compare Cancun to NY or LA?

They are very different places. Mexico does things that we don’t. There is a lot of procedures for people going into hotels. They clean your bags for you. They really don’t skimp on the whole process. Even though they may open, there are a lot of processes in place to make you feel safe.

While in New York, things are still kind of closed. As they open up, they may not have as apparent Covid procedures. Or like Miami, that had absolutely none. Although if you look at the numbers, even though Miami is getting a lot of crap for being open, their numbers have steadily declined as well. Only because they have readily available testing and vaccines.

Are you vaccinated?

I am vaccinated!

You are originally from San Antonio. Has there been any resistance to vaccinations?

Oh, I definitely have people I’m close with, especially in Texas, who decided that they don’t want to do the first round of vaccinations. They don’t trust it. Or some conspiracy is holding them back from getting vaccinated. I wish I was the voice of reason in their life to be like, “get vaccinated for the sake of all.” But they are their own people and if decide this is not something they want, there is very little you can do to convince them.

What have you been creating during quarantine? 

Oh my goodness, so much. I feel like all we can do is just create at this point. My thing during Covid, I wrote 2 albums, and I’m writing a third. Dance has taken its hold on me during all of this. I started posting dance videos. That’s been something that I find very rewarding.

 

What’s the best advice you can give to aspiring gayby performers getting out of quarantine?

I’d tell all performers to not get caught up in this delusion that performing live is the only way you can make money. If you are an artist and you are struggling and you were someone who depended on live performances to live, this is your time to develop merchandising, to develop virtual performances. There are tons of ways to be making a living online.

 

The first place you want to travel after quarantine?

We are going to France! We’re going to Spain! We’re going to the UK! It’s going to be fantastic.

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