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The wait is over. Columbus' annual mega Pride Festival is finally here.
The massive festival's end-of-June takeover is known for drawing more then 100,000 participants, with a price tag of $130,000. It's a proverbial rainbow explosion that's impossible to ignore. It's also the largest Pride fest in the Midwest.
Because of construction downtown and the closing of Bicentennial Park (which displaced several festivals this year), Pride has been moved up a weekend (it typically coincides with ComFest during the last weekend in June) and transported over to Goodale Park in the Short North. With the move, Saturday's parade route is changed. It will now start at the Ohio Statehouse and run the length of High Street before ending at Goodale Park.
Put on by the small staff at Stonewall Columbus and a committee of close to 30 volunteers that helps with planning, staging, setting-up and tearing down, the festival will tout massive floats, food vendors and live entertainment. This year they're upping the ante with two stages of entertainment Friday and Saturday and later closing times (11 p.m. Friday, 9 p.m. Saturday). This year's headliner is Kat Deluna, known for the smash hits "Whine Up" (featuring Elephant Man) and "Run the Show" (featuring Busta Rhymes). She's currently on the "True Colors" tour with Cyndi Lauper and Rosie O'Donnell.
Metromix caught up with Karla Rothan, Stonewall's executive director, to chat about the new location, this year's "Freedom" theme and why this is the most expensive Pride Festival ever.
Normally Pride is the same weekend as ComFest. Why the change to a week earlier? And what about the change in venue?
Traditionally, throughout the country, Pride month is June. We've typically always held it during the last weekend in June because that is the official anniversary of the historic Stonewall riots, which led to the Gay Civil Rights Movement.
Unfortunately Bicentennial Park is under construction until 2013, so we had to find another venue that would accommodate 100,000 people. Most of our constituents and members live around the Short North, so we decided to move it Goodale Park Then we, of course, had to move the date because ComFest is at Goodale the last weekend of June.
We may or may not move it back in 2013. We're not sure if the city is even going to allow festivals down there anymore after the downtown construction is complete. But the feedback on our side is that people like it better on a different weekend from ComFest, because now they can go to both. So I'm thinking we're going to try and keep it here for as long as we can.
What's the theme this year?
The theme this year is freedom. And that's because it's the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots. We wanted to focus this year's Pride around looking at our civil rights to see if there are any freedoms that we still don't have since the movement began.
As our Grand Marshal for the Pride parade, we selected Rupert Starr, who's a World War II veteran and is very active in speaking out against the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" [policy] in the military. He's fought for our freedoms as an out gay veteran, and we thought that was a perfect example of a freedom that we still don't have.
How would you say Pride compares to other festivals of its kind in Ohio?
I think that all of our festivals are very similar. I've never been to any of the others in Cleveland or Cincinnati, but I've been told that they're similar. They both have a parade and then a festival. But the one thing that's different with the Columbus Pride is it's our largest fundraiser of the year. Every dollar we receive goes to the support of the Center on High, and it brings in tens of thousands of dollars in tourism for the city, which makes the city officials very happy.
Who are the guest performers this year, and why were they chosen?
Well, this year we've got Josh Zuckerman, who's an amazing guitarist, [plus] The Fabulous Johnson Brothers, Melissa Ferrick ... our big headliner is Kat Deluna. You can check out all the performers and their bios at the Columbus Pride Web site. Most of them are being a huge help by performing for free, except the headliner, but a lot of them are coming here for little to no money.
The entertainment list is handled by our Center Coordinator Suzie Simpson, who works directly with our board and the Pride Coordinator. And we also work with an agent out of [Los Angeles] to help us mostly decide who we can afford. [Simpson] really has a very small budget, and she gets a lot of great people for such a small amount.
What do you like best about being involved with Pride every year?
It's the one day of the year we can march down High Street and say, ‘this is who we are,' you know, [say] that we are an entity that's a very powerful part of this city. To show that there are gay and lesbians in your city and we are a major part of what makes the city successful.
There are a lot of people at work who can't put their lovers on their desk, who think they can't be out, can't go to church, can't tell their mothers and families because they think they'll be disowned. This event helps to show that you can be comfortable with who you are and be proud of who you are, and that's true freedom.
What do you like least about being involved with Pride every year?
The only thing that upsets me is the rain [laughs]. If it doesn't rain, I'm a happy camper. But I tell people to make sure they bring parkas and umbrellas, and if it does rain, just buy a beer and drink through it [laughs].
Anything else you want to add about the festival that wasn't mentioned above?
We want people to know that we are grateful to put this on every year. We will be selling wristbands and dog tags again at the festival, which is the admission fee, and just know when you give that $5 it goes directly to putting on Pride next year.
This year's Pride was the most expensive ever. It was $130,000 to do this event, and we really want to keep doing it every year. It's really important that people give what they can so that we can keep putting this on. All around the country people have decided not to do Pride this year because of the economic downturn, but not here in Columbus. We only have five employees, two of which are part-time, and we put on a festival for 100,000 people each year. We're not just asking for money to be greedy [laughs], it really is a necessity.
What other people are saying...
SquirrelLover from Grandview - June 16, 2009 at 6:28 AM
Great story! This weekend should be fun!
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