Celebrities in Cherry Grove: Lady Gaga, Liza Minnelli & the Icon Series | koitz
Celebrities in Cherry Grove: Nardicio's Icon Series at the Ice Palace
Location: The Ice Palace, Cherry Grove, Fire Island
Cherry Grove may be a small beach community on Fire Island, but over the decades it has attracted some of the biggest names in entertainment. Behind its intimate scale and relaxed summer atmosphere is a remarkable cultural history: artists, performers, musicians, actors and LGBTQ+ icons have come to Cherry Grove to perform, celebrate and connect with audiences in an unusually personal setting.
For photographer koitz, these encounters became part of a larger visual archive documenting queer life on Fire Island. His photographs capture not only the celebrities themselves, but also the distinctive atmosphere of Cherry Grove—the intimacy between performers and audiences and the sense that something extraordinary can happen in a very small space.
From Lady Gaga to Liza Minnelli
One of the most memorable moments came in August 2009, when producer and promoter Daniel Nardicio brought a then-emerging Lady Gaga to Cherry Grove for a Friday underwear party. At the time, Gaga was at the beginning of her international career, following the release of her debut album, The Fame, which included the hit single “Just Dance.”
She performed three songs for the Cherry Grove crowd, creating one of those uniquely Fire Island moments in which a rising international star could appear in an intimate, unconventional setting.
For koitz, photographing these events meant preserving moments that would become part of the community's collective memory.
The Icon Series
In the summer of 2012, Daniel Nardicio launched his Icon Series at the Ice Palace in Cherry Grove, bringing legendary performers into the heart of the Fire Island community.
The first Icon Series pairing featured Liza Minnelli and Alan Cumming, two celebrated performers and Tony Award winners who had both famously been associated with Cabaret. Their appearance at the Ice Palace created a remarkable first: the two performers sharing the stage together in Cherry Grove.
The setting was as important as the stars.
The Ice Palace is not a traditional Broadway theater or large concert venue. Its relatively intimate environment creates a direct connection between performer and audience that is characteristic of Fire Island. Here, internationally recognized artists could perform for a queer audience just a few steps away from the beach and the summer homes of Cherry Grove.
An extraordinary roster of performers
Nardicio's Icon Series continued to bring major artists to Fire Island.
Among the performers who appeared over the years were:
- Liza Minnelli
- Alan Cumming
- Chita Rivera
- John Waters
- Margaret Cho
- Patti LuPone
- Justin Vivian Bond
- Peaches
- Bridget Everett
- Sandra Bernhard
- Lea DeLaria
Many of these performers have played an important role in LGBTQ+ culture, theater, music, comedy and performance.
koitz photographed many of these appearances, creating a visual record of a remarkable chapter in Cherry Grove's cultural life.
His photographs capture something that conventional celebrity photography often misses: the relationship between the performer and the community.
These aren't simply photographs of famous people. They are photographs of famous people within a particular queer cultural environment—surrounded by audiences who know the significance of the place and the moment.
Cherry Grove as a stage
That is what makes Cherry Grove so distinctive.
It is a small community, but its cultural history is enormous. For generations, LGBTQ+ visitors have traveled to Fire Island to find freedom, friendship, self-expression and community. The arrival of major performers and cultural figures became part of that tradition.
The Ice Palace, in particular, has played an important role in this story. Its stage has provided a space where established stars and emerging performers could meet an audience in an environment very different from a conventional theater or concert hall.
For the audience, seeing a major celebrity in Cherry Grove could become a lifelong memory.
For koitz, those moments became part of an archive.
Listen to the stories behind the photographs
The Cherry Grove Archives Collection exhibition offers another dimension to koitz's photographs. Through audio recordings, visitors can hear stories connected to the photographs and the people and events depicted in them.
Listen to koitz's audio accompanying the photographs below, including the image featuring Lady Gaga and the other celebrities.
Listen to the koitz exhibit audio at Cherry Grove Archives
The audio component is particularly important because it transforms the photographs from isolated images into pieces of oral and visual history.
A visual archive of queer celebrity culture
koitz's photographs of the Icon Series belong to a much larger body of work documenting Fire Island's LGBTQ+ communities. His archive includes Cherry Grove and Fire Island Pines, parties and performances, beaches and landscapes, intimate portraits and the everyday experiences of the people who have made the island an important destination for queer culture.
The celebrity photographs are therefore more than a collection of famous faces.
They document a moment when popular culture and queer community intersected in one of America's most historically significant LGBTQ+ destinations.
And that is perhaps what makes the images so compelling today: they preserve not only who was there, but what it felt like to be there.