Pride Comes to Fort Lauderdale
Pridefest Fort Lauderdale, a two-day fundraising festival featuring indoor and outdoor entertainment, will bring together local vendors and entertainment while raising awareness about the gay community.
"What we are doing is making the community better," said Eleanor Shaw, chairwoman of Pride South Florida, a nonprofit organization that promotes positive images of gays, lesbians and the transgendered.
Funds raised from the festival will be donated to gay and health groups. "We give grants out to all the health organizations that need help that are gay related," she said.
Shaw said she hopes that all walks of people will attend. "We have gay, straight, everything. All of our booths are open to everyone," she said.
Pridefest will be held from 12 - 7 p.m. April 12-13 at the Holiday Park War Memorial Auditorium, 730 N. Federal Hwy. in Fort Lauderdale.
Organizers say they hope the turnout will rival or surpass last year's, which, Shaw estimated to be at about 35,000. "It's grown immensely. It gets bigger and bigger every year," she said.
Among the entertainment is singer international recording artist Viola Wills, who is scheduled to perform at 4 p.m. April 13. Wills, whose singles are popular in dance clubs, performs what she calls "Jazzspel", a mix of jazz and gospel.
"I think she's going to be great," Shaw said.
Other acts include comedy hypnotist Jon Simon with two shows on April 12 and 13, and the Fort Lauderdale Gay Men's Chorus on April 13. "For the most part the entertainment is fabulous," Shaw said.
With just a few weeks left to finalize plans, Shaw has been busy securing vendors. "We usually have about 250 vendors. Right now I have about 230," she said. Some sponsors include Comcast, Gay.com, and Instinct Magazine.
Beyond raising money, organizers aim to raise awareness and foster relationships.
"Pride is important. For one, it gives the community a place to meet and see old friends," said Mike Zewe, capital campaign manager for West Palm Beach-based Compass, a gay and lesbian community center and sponsor of Fort Lauderdale Pridefest. Compass also holds a pride festival of its own in late March in Lake Worth.
Pride events, said Zewe, are also good ways for the gay community to have its voices heard. "It's also important politically because we get to show the caring of our community. When we have pride events in such public places it makes it very difficult for people not to recognize our community," he said.
The relationship between the two festivals is close, said Zewe. "We definitely share info, logistics, and things to coordinate the festival," he said.
Each organization asks vendors to consider signing up for the other city's festival. "We help build each others festivals. We've worked with Pride South Florida for many, many years and it's a very valuable relationship," Zewe said.
Marc Hansen, chairman emeritus of Pride of Greater Fort Lauderdale is serving as volunteer coordinator for Pridefest this year, though he has helped with the festival for the past three years. He expects about 30 volunteers to help out on each day.
Hansen said based on previous festivals, this year's should entertain. "The atmosphere is a fun atmosphere, we have two different stages - we have an outside stage and inside stage where we have local and national performers," he said. "It's a party atmosphere with a business attitude."
He is also reminded of the more serious issues that the gay community faces. "Pridefest is to remind people of the fact that we don't have our rights," Hansen said. "That's why we have pride organizations and pride events. We've always been treated as second-class citizens even though we pay the exact same taxes. A lot of people say we have a gay agenda, and we do. It's not special rights, its equal rights."
This year's celebration marks 31 years of Pridefest. Though the venue and time of year have changed, Shaw said that much remains the same. "It hasn't changed in many ways. It's very family oriented, which we're very proud of," she said.
One thing that has changed is moving the event to a larger venue. "It has been in many different places. Just because we've grown so much we had to change our venues," Shaw said. Former Pridefest locations include Mills Pond Park and the Broward Convention Center. "From Mills Pond we've gone to the War Memorial. It's very nice and very accommodating," she said.
Another change came because of Mother Nature - the organizers used to hold Pridefest in June before switching to its current April date. "That's mainly because of the heat, that's 99 percent of why we moved it," Shaw said of the month's cooler weather. "Many other festivals have moved theirs. It's mainly because in June it's so hot under the tents that people don't want to attend. We became bigger and stronger when we moved."
Beyond Pridefest, the organization holds other fundraising events. "We do things throughout the year. We also have a picnic in June that we sponsor with Women in Network on June 8. The rest of the year we do fundraisers."
Shaw encourages everyone in the community will attend. "We have families with children, gay and straight and they tell us all the time how great it is," she said. Tickets are $8 and $5 for students with ID.
More information, including a listing of events and entertainment, go to the Pride South Florida website, www.pridesouthflorida.org.