Photo by Rebecca Smeyne for MTV Hive.

Saturday night and well into Sunday morning, around 4,000 people descended onto the Roseland Ballroom near Times Square for the 22nd annual Latex Ball, the largest event of its kind. The ball scene, as it’s known, is a rich and complex subculture at least 50 years in the making, with a distinct terminology and structure. In essence, balls are themed, runway-based “battles” in which primarily black and hispanic gay and transgender individuals (and a small percentage of women) compete before an audience and panel of judges in a long list of categories involving specific modalities of dance (“vogueing” — it’s where Madonna got the term), fashion design (from “bizarre” to traditional), walking (“European Runway” and “American Runway”), beauty (with separate contests for face and body), ability to blend in with heteros (“realness”), lingerie (“Sex Siren”), and even sneakers. There is a further dichotomy of gay man vs. transgender (“butch queen” and “femme queen”) and the categories often include separate versions for both. All balls offer similar categories, but for each event they are adapted to that particular ball’s themes (this year’s Latex Ball theme was “The Enchanted Forest”).

The competitors are generally affiliated with a “house” and compete both for personal glory as well as that of their house. The houses are formally organized, adoptive extended families/fraternities of sorts that provide a crucial support and social structure for a population often rejected by their biological families. The names of the houses tend to be fashion and luxury inspired (e.g., Mizrahi, Valentino, Blahnik, Milan, Evisu, Garcon, Xtravaganza, Infiniti) and these houses, many with chapters in multiple cities, host their own balls as well. The Latex Ball is a mega ball in which all houses are invited to compete. Unlike other balls, it was not started by one of the houses, but by the health organization Gay Men’s Health Crisis calling itself the “House of Latex” (as in condoms), as a centralized, fun and supportive environment in which they could enact public health outreach to this high-risk community.

The runway competitions at the Latex Ball last for over seven straight hours, and are tirelessly MC’d by a team of veteran commentators (Jack Mizrahi, Selvin Khan, and Dashaun Evisu), who host, mediate, and narrate the battles, chanting and rapping over beats provided by DJ Vjuan Allure. The chants can be catchy, dirty, taunting, encouraging, and often use repetition of the category name in their lyrical structure. There is also a scene of musicians, DJs, and record labels sprouted by this culture, which has influenced everyone from Madonna to bounce music — Azealia Banks‘ recent Mermaid Ball and mixtape were nods to the ball scene, too. As far as artists who have come directly from the ball scene, DJ/producer Allure has been around for a while, while newer stars like Mike Q are gaining acclaim well beyond this scene, playing everywhere from raves in Europe to art world institutions like MoMA PS 1.

Check out photos from this year’s Latex Ball below.