After a meteoric five-year rise, Ascension has arguably become the definitive circuit party weekend on Fire Island Pines—and the standard-bearer for polished and professional outdoor dance events.

What started in 2006 as an afternoon fundraiser for the Fund in the Sun Foundation has now become a party juggernaut with a full spate of events, including this year’s inaugural Ascension Tea Dance on Saturday evening, featuring the dueling turntables of circuit sweethearts DJs Twisted Dee and Phil B. With a fireworks finale and a killer performance by Erika Jayne (“Pretty Mess,” “Sex Shooter”), and nearly two thousand boys dancing on a purpose-built dance floor stretching out over the Great South Bay, this party was on the tongues of nearly every boy who wandered onto the beach for the main event on Sunday afternoon. No less than the circuit’s most prolific producer of parties pronounced the Saturday Tea Dance “the best party I’ve ever attended in the Pines.”

Well then. That’s a lot of expectation to place on the main event—but not to worry, for all morning long the ferries dumped boatloads of boys from the mainland onto the world’s most paradisiacal sandbar. And as you followed the parade of bikinis and Bermudas from the boardwalks onto the beach, and as you saw again Ascension’s signature blue-and-white colors and its trademark twin reflecting pools, you wouldn’t be faulted if your heart skipped a beat in heady anticipation.

Minus last year’s white massive A-framed Ascension pyramid, this year’s Ascension centerpiece was a contemporary take on a Grecian pergola, flanked by the reflecting pools (did someone say Narcissus?), which enabled a parade of Hollywood entrances with attendant paparazzi flashes and Facebook smiles.

With its perimeter of sun-bleached white cabanas etched in cerulean, Ascension evokes a mythic Mykonos oasis—and the sea of boys washing onto its shores this year was a testament to its allure. By the time DJ Freemasons Russell Smalls took over the turntables after a jubilant set by Roland Belmares, the floor was packed with boys accessorized with fans, chains, winged metallic sneakers—and enough esoteric headgear to fill a fashion shoot with Gaga.

Blissfully, the cloud cover kept this year’s Ascension from becoming the rotisserie that marked Ascension 2009—and instead of fainting from heat exhaustion, the floor was marked by boys tossed into the air and girls atop shoulders, surfing the crowd.

And why not? This was a party where you entered to Alexis Jordan’s “Happiness,” before smoothly segueing into Solange’s “Sandcastle Disco,” and Beyonce’s “Déjà Vu,” as well as “Everybody Dance,” and Mary J’s “Be Without You,” and “75th Street Brazil,” and, of course, the song of the summer, Zoe Badwi’s “Release Me.”

But it was Kelis’s “Acapella,” with its insistently up-tempo buzz and soaring harmonies that brought the dance floor into a cohesive ecstatic mass. Ostensibly a paean to her newborn son, Knight, “Acapella” is one of those hypnotic tracks that conjoins both the heart and the moneymaker, making you want to dance for joy with everyone you’ve ever loved—and there they all were, surrounding you on the floor.

Everyone, no really, everyone, from Carson Kressley to Wilson Cruz, Michael Lucas, Andy Tobias, Ric Sena, Abel, and Oliver, Twisted Dee, Paulo, Luke Johnstone, Corey Hill, Damiano F., Dave & Gerardo, Jaker and his gorgeous Matinee Leche posse, Eddie Martinez, Joe Gauthreaux, Josh Wood, DeMarko Browne, Hal Rubenstein and David Nickle, Corey Craig, Eric Von Kuersteine, the Task Force family including Alex B., Russell, Janice T., and Dave C., Holly Goheavy and her consort Gareth, Matthew Bank, Sean Patrick Ryan, Erin Stacey V., Lizzz Kritzer and Danielle Lise, Beto and Jonathan, Steve W., Michael L., Chris, Eddie, and Jojo, Michael and Olivier—and a radiantly smiling Adam Weaver.

“What a lovefest,” shouted one woman, and when that Freemasons track “Love On My Mind” hit the floor, with its incessant refrain “I got love on my mind/Ain’t no use in me wasting time,” there was no denying the outpouring of emotion and jubilation.

As one lyric put it, “Never give up, it’s such a wonderful life,” and while life has its hardships, no question, and there’s pain, to be sure, one of the true joys of this life is to be found in the celebratory nature of dancing on a beach with thousands of your friends and family. This year’s Ascension was a reminder why we keep on keeping on—dancing for love.