The Annual Seattle Pride Parade in downtown Seattle and Seattle PrideFest at the Seattle Center will be held on the last Sunday in June. In addition to the big celebrations in downtown, on Saturday June 27, there will be TWO Pride Festivals on Capitol Hill. That gives Seattle four pride celebrations that last weekend in June with a fifth event being the Dyke March and Rally on Saturday evening.
The Capitol Hill Pride Festival 2009 on Broadway has been announced and the City of Seattle’s Special Events just gave permission to go forward with the festival in what the Capitol Hill Community Council believes will become Capitol Hill’s largest annual event. (The Capitol Hill Block Party, Seattle’s annual indie-music event in July, attracts just shy of 10,000 people in two days)
The format of the festival will be an all ages family fun festival celebrating diversity and community pride. The theme is “Family” and the festival will be open to everyone, LGBT, straight and anyone of any background. Music, Singing, Entertainment, Fashion Shows Contests, Pet parade, and Face Painting are being planned.
It will be located on two blocks of Broadway Avenue between Olive and Harrison St. (From Broadway Grill to Rite Aid). The event will conclude at 4pm so it does not conflict with the annual Dyke March and Rally which begins later that afternoon. Capitol Hill’s Arts and Events committee is pegging attendance at 2,000 minimum but they believe the attendance may reach 10,000.
The Capitol Hill Community Council wants to keep the event “fiscally responsible” but they will add a Jumbotron screen if funds allow it. “To date, twenty five businesses are supporting the festival and the Arts and Events Committee is working with youth groups to help schedule the festival.”
Another feature of the Pride festival for decoration is Broadway lights in the colors of the light spectrum up and down Broadway. These lights would start with the color blue on the North end of Broadway at Roy and “band” to red to Pike and stay up all year helping to uniting Broadway, Subtly identify Capitol Hill as the gay district of Seattle, provide additional lighting for safety and Attract visitors and shoppers to Capitol Hill.
The proposed lighting will go up by June 1st for the start of Pride month. The next meeting for the event is Sunday April 12, 7pm at Oddfellows Café on 10th and Pike on Capitol Hill.
For information about the Capitol Hill Pride Fesitval contact Charlette LeFevre, Capitol Hill Community Council VP of the Arts and Events Committee at clefevre@oz.net.
