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04/23/2007
Bill now too large in the Center, gays move on
Due to an unpaid $100,000 bill from last year's festivities, organizers of Seattle's gay pride festival will not be holding multi-day festivities at the downtown Seattle Center this year, opting instead for a scaled-down one day event at an alternate venue.
In a related story, we hear that the city's popular Pride chant will this year be changed from "We're Here, We're Queer, Get Used To It," to "We're Not Here, If That's The Bill Collector, Please Don't Forget."
Gay pride parade out of downtown, Seattle Center this year [SeattlePi]
Your thoughts
This actually has some fairly negative consequences for the community here in Seattle. Last year, Pride was moved downtown into the city center away from the historic parade route on Broadway (on Capitol Hill, the traditionally gay neighborhood).
There was more space downtown unlike in the past where the sidewalks were so packed that it was all but impossible to move around and enjoy watching the parade. The parade was also televised in Seattle and Vancouver, BC last year--a big increase in visibility. The festival at Seattle Center was outstanding--lots of space and all sorts of people dancing in a giant fountain in the center. By most accounts, it was the best pride in a long time unless you were an scorned merchant or bar owner on Capitol Hill who lost sales.
So now we'll go back up the hill, back into the ghetto and back to a more limited Pride.
Posted by: Jeff | Apr 24, 2007 12:41:33 AM
