By Jim Knippenberg
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Sure it's unlikely: A bunch of people on a frosty Saturday night all gussied up in shorts, sarongs, flimsy Hawaiian shirts and, in at least one case, a drafty grass skirt.

But that was the deal at Music Hall Ballroom and the annual Jammin' on the Beach, a May Festival benefit that drew 280 people and two parrots - hey, it's a tropical party, right? - for the $135-a-head auction, dinner and dance. The parrots didn't pay, but they did visit a lot of shoulders that night.

The beauty of this party is everyone dresses - and never mind the mad dash they have to make from valet parkers to the door to keep from freezing - and gets into the spirit. That's because co-chairs, a pair of firecrackers name of Julie Hill and Hilary Wynne, promise to torment the daylights out of anyone who doesn't.

Oh, and it's also a younger-than-usual crowd at this one, so guests play a lot before and after dinner - Elegant Fare's Caribbean menu with black bean soup, sweet potato and pear soup, arroz con pollo. Lots of dancing here, a feat that involved dodging beach balls and plastic fish flying around the dance floor.

And now and then dodging ladies' uh, bosoms when they decided to stuff beach balls down their tops, all to music from the Chozen and Caribbean Steel Project.

And all before trying to stay warm on that mad dash back to the valets.