Plans for 2007 edition of Seattle’s annual pride festivities hit the skids
There may well be no 2007 gay pride celebration in Seattle if recent reports are true.
First, according to the Seattle Times, Seattle Out and Proud, organizers of the annual three-day Seattle pride festival, is saddled with a $102,000 debt to the Seattle Center that has already led them to announce that they don't think it would be "financially prudent" to move forward with plans to hold a large-scale event in downtown Seattle at the facility this year.
Then, late yesterday, Seattle Pride Parade and Festival organizers announced that not only might the festival not happen at the Seattle Center, but that it might not happen at all.
Again speaking to the Seattle Times, Weston Sprigg, vice president of Seattle Out and Proud, said "We don't know" whether there will be a parade this year.
If there were no parade and no festival in Seattle this year, it would be the first time in 32 years that the city has not held a pride celebration.
Seattle's Pride issues apparently began last year when a controversial decision was made by organizers to move the parade and festival from its longtime home in Capitol Hill to Seattle Center in 2006. Though more than 200,000 people attended the 2006 celebration for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, according to reports, the organizers did not make enough money from sponsorships and donations to cover the cost of holding the event at Seattle Center, which was far more expensive than the previous site, Volunteer Park. Hence the $102,000 unpaid bill to the city.
For the city's part, Seattle Center officials said they were prepared to allow Seattle Out and Proud to have the event downtown again this year. But the group would have to pay $50,000 of its debt immediately, then pay back $25,000 each year for two years, according to the Seattle Times.
The organizers also were required to hire a professional event planner and a sponsorship firm, which Seattle Out and Proud did, in addition to voting in new leadership. But together with its planning and sponsorship team, the organization determined it would be irresponsible to proceed with another downtown event.
"While most people believe that the 2006 march and festival in downtown Seattle showcased the LGBT community extremely well, a fiscally responsible 2007 march and festival, no matter where their physical location, is the most important goal," organizers said in the statement.
John Merner, deputy director at Seattle Center told the Seattle Times that he is now sending the full past due bill from the 2006 pride celebration to the city's legal department to collect.
"An event of this scale requires considerable sponsorship, and I think with all the controversy swirling around Pride these past couple of years made it hard to secure that sponsorship," Merner told the Seattle newspaper.
Obviously news that does not bode well for a very happy pride '07 in the crown jewel of the Pacific Northwest.
The Seattle Out and Proud board plans to meet today to make a final decision on the event, which was planned for the weekend of June 24.