After the Party: Following Up on PrideFest 2011

We had a few counts during the day, starting with about 4,000 right at the first and growing to almost 7,000 towards the latter part. We have no idea how many ended up coming and going, but when Tiffany was on, I've never seen the square as packed since the heaviest Sundown ever got.

 

Bigger and better both come to mind. Even though there were a LOT more people, vendors, entertainers and media, there seemed to be a lot fewer problems to deal with. I think that has to do w/ the experience that the East Tennessee Equality Council (ETEC) board has been building over the years and using that experience to put on a more professional, attractive, enjoyable and entertaining festival for vendors and attendees alike.  

 

Our vendor count was up over 30 percent as we sold out our booth spots for the first year ever. Our total budget over doubled, our Pride Book was 60 percent larger, the Parade tripled in the number of entries and had almost 10 times the number of spectators. The number of restaurants that hosted Eat OUT w/ Pride nights quadrupled, the attendance at our repeat events over doubled and we still had room for a couple of new events like our Night OUT @ the Smokies Ballpark. We also reached out to a few new venues in addition to the ballpark w/ our Art OUT in the City event moving to The Emporium, the VIP Party moving to URBhana and the Next to Nothing Fashion Show moving to The Ciderhouse.  

 

I think that the excitement surrounding the number of events we had and the variety of new venues that stepped up to support our community really created a lot of positive experiences all month long that culminated in our state's largest free Pride event for 2011.

 

People are always up for a good time, particularly if in their daily lives they may not feel as comfortable to be themselves, to hold their partner's hand or to look "different" as they did on Saturday. I'm sure that always contributes to our large turnout, but I do think the excitement over New York's passage of Same-sex Marriage the night before the festival contrasting with the discriminatory, bigoted legislation we've been faced with locally was also a big driving factor in people coming out this year.

 

Next year there will definitely have to be some changes, as with this type of festival, we can't really afford to sell out of our booth space. There are too many organizations that NEED to be involved for the success of their organization, but there is also a huge need for our community (both LGBT and at-large) to see a massive involvement by groups/companies that step up to be involved because it's the right thing to do. 

It's not right for us, as an organization, to have to say no to either of these entries because we ran out of space. So, we'll be working w/ the City of Knoxville Special Events Department to determine our best plan of action, whether expanding the festival beyond Wall Ave into Krutch Park, or possibly even considering a larger venue like the World's Fair Park or the Old City. We also had some minor glitches that will continue to work on, like getting our Pride Books out earlier in the year, but there's always room for improvement.

 

The biggest change that I hope to see this coming year is for our community to be able to stretch Knoxville PrideFest and the energy, passion and events that come with it, to a year-round experience. We have already begun that transformation this year with holding a community-wide fund-raiser each of the last two quarters, but there needs to be more. ETEC will be working with our board, committees and other community groups to make sure that the LGBT community can Experience Equality not just the last Saturday in June, but all year long in Knoxville and our surrounding areas so stay tuned and come OUT, come OUT, whoever and wherever you are.