{"id":243665,"date":"2010-07-09T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-07-09T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/despite-challenges-this-year-pride-plans-amazing-festival\/"},"modified":"2010-07-09T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-07-09T07:00:00","slug":"despite-challenges-this-year-pride-plans-amazing-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/despite-challenges-this-year-pride-plans-amazing-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"A pesar de los desaf\u00edos de este a\u00f1o, Pride planea un festival 'incre\u00edble'"},"content":{"rendered":"

Por Pat Sherman
\nAsistente de edici\u00f3n SDUN
\n<\/strong>
\n

\"Despite<\/a>
(l-r): Ben Orgovan, parade manager; Karla Cruz, youth intern; Vern Lowe, operations\/accounting coordinator; Cathy Hemphill, rally coordinator; John Bilow, marketing director; and Cheli Mohamed, volunteer and community resource director. (Courtesy Rick Braatz) <\/figcaption><\/figure>As many as 165,000 spectators are expected to line the streets of Hillcrest during the 26th annual San Diego LGBT Pride parade, July 17 at 11 a.m. <\/p>\n

The parade begins at Normal Street, proceeds west to Sixth Avenue, and then south to Upas Street in Balboa Park, culminating in a two-day festival at Marston Point.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s parade grand marshals are actress Cloris Leachman, whose credits include the “Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “Dancing with the Stars,” and activist Stuart Milk, nephew of slain LGBT civil rights leader Harvey Milk.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s amazing that we\u2019ll be able to create the kind of event we\u2019re going to create this year,\u201d Pride Co-chair Judi Schaim said. \u201cTo think that Cloris Leachman called us to see if she could be in the parade is just awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Event organizers expect the festival to draw 45,000 attendees. The festivities are San Diego\u2019s largest annual civic event, bringing visitors from around the world to America\u2019s Finest City.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s an opportunity for everyone to come together, accept everyone\u2019s differences and to just have a good time,” Pride event coordinator Jennifer Turner-Minotti said. “I think that\u2019s the bottom line. We need to respect each other\u2019s differences.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to estimates from Mayor Jerry Sanders\u2019 office, the economic impact of the event is more than $21 million. Last year\u2019s parade drew an estimated 150,000 people, more than the annual Comic-Con International, which had an attendance of about 126,000 last year (that event will begin on the coattails of Pride, July 22-25, at the San Diego Convention Center).<\/p>\n

Comic-Con fans can get their geek on early this year when Devo\u2014the band who proclaimed they\u2019re \u201cThrough Being Cool\u201d\u2014headlines the Pride festival\u2019s Cox Communications main stage Sunday, July 18, at 7:15 p.m.<\/p>\n

Turner-Minotti said the organization had originally sought to procure former Rancho Pe\u00f1asquitos resident and \u201cAmerican Idol\u201d contestant Adam Lambert to perform Sunday evening. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe reached out to Adam Lambert and started the negotiation process with him and unfortunately it didn\u2019t work out,\u201d Turner-Minotti said. \u201cWe had to just go down the list and find entertainers that would attract the various ages that attend the festival.<\/p>\n

\u201cDevo is definitely making a comeback,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019ve played some really great festivals [such as] Coachella and Lollapalooza. Someone just kind of threw their name out there. We reached out to their agency and, luckily, we got a bite back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grammy Award-winning rapper and hip-hop singer \u201cEve\u201d Jihan Jeffers will offer a taste of her forthcoming CD, \u201cLip Lock,\u201d when she headlines the festival, July 17 at 8:15 p.m. <\/p>\n

Turner-Minotti said Pride approached Eve\u2019s management company about booking another entertainer, and they suggested Eve, whom they also represent.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just seemed to work out that she could come to town,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The process of reviewing entertainment applications began in December.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a huge undertaking,\u201d Turner-Minotti said. \u201cWe received over 150 applications and electronic press kits. We listen to every single CD that we receive. We went onto people\u2019s MySpace pages just trying to find the best entertainment locally, regionally and nationally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though Lambert won\u2019t be performing, another former \u201cAmerican Idol\u201d contestant, Blake Lewis, will grace the main stage July 18 at 6:10 p.m., prior to Devo.<\/p>\n

Turner-Minotti said Pride spent a little more money on festival entertainment this year than it did last. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe really wanted to focus on providing quality entertainment,\u201d she said. \u201cLast year the headliners weren\u2019t as well known across the board.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than 80 performers are scheduled to play on four festival stages during the weekend, most of whom volunteer their talents to the nonprofit organization or appear for a small sum.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are some local and regional entertainers that we will pay a very nominal fee or we may support them by offering hotel accommodations,\u201d Turner-Minotti said. \u201cThis year we received an airfare barter through Orbitz [for] some of our regional entertainers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Spirit of Stonewall Rally will be revived this year, Friday, July 16, 6 p.m. at Marston Point.<\/p>\n

The rally, intended to draw attention to Pride\u2019s activist and political roots, had been abandoned in previous years due to a lack of interest and low attendance, organizers said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe energy behind it had been lost in the last four or five years,\u201d Schaim said. \u201cIt seemed like it was a token rally.\u201d<\/p>\n

The keynote speaker for this year\u2019s rally is Robin McGehee, co-director of the LGBT rights group GetEQUAL. The firebrand organization is taking the gay community\u2019s fight for equal rights back to the streets, often through acts of civil disobedience. Its members are known for shouting down President Barack Obama for his slow response to repealing the military\u2019s \u201cdon\u2019t ask, don\u2019t tell\u201d policy. McGehee, Lt. Dan Choi and others were arrested earlier this year outside the White House during a protest of the policy. In a story appearing in the Advocate magazine, openly gay congressman Barney Frank described the group\u2019s tactics as \u201ctacky\u201d and \u201cimmature.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Schaim said alternative voices such as McGehee\u2019s are just what the rally and movement need to reinvigorate itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cWill everyone agree with her perspective? No, but you need that fire to really get us going,\u201d she said. \u201cWe wanted somebody who\u2019s a dynamic speaker… . I think every year we need to have that before we party and celebrate our accomplishments, to know about the struggle and the work that still needs to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s Pride parade will include 150 contingents, from politicians and colorful entertainers to marching bands, businesses and community organizations.<\/p>\n

Despite the turmoil that dogged Pride earlier this year, including the removal of its executive director and replacement of its board of directors, Pride’s leadership says the organization has been working double duty to make sure it is prepared for this year\u2019s event.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe staff has been tremendous,” Schaim said. “Without them this wouldn\u2019t happen. They have stepped up and they are just incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

The organization also is working to prevent gaps in the parade, which occurred last year, causing the event to run overtime.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year people talked about how there were three different parades,\u201d Turner-Minotti said. \u201cThis year we are going to line the contingents up like ants and we\u2019re going to march them out. The bottom line is we needed to educate the contingents a little bit better.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Pat Sherman SDUN Assistant Editor As many as 165,000 spectators are expected to line the streets of Hillcrest during the 26th annual San Diego LGBT Pride parade, July 17 at 11 a.m. The parade begins at Normal Street, proceeds west to Sixth Avenue, and then south to Upas Street in Balboa Park, culminating in […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1310,"featured_media":243666,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Despite challenges this year, Pride plans \u2018amazing\u2019 festival","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1310"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}