Queerfest takes to the Hill on June 23
The Queerfest march took over Broadway on Saturday, June 23, with the traditional roar of Dykes on Bikes gunning their motorcycles and mugging to the crowd. Theirs were the only internal combustion engines allowed in the march this year, which began at Broadway and East Pike Street and headed north on Broadway, 10th Avenue East and then to Volunteer Park, cheered and applauded by an appreciative crowd.
Several thousand spectators were on hand for the march, held the day before the official Pride parade that has relocated downtown. The Queefest march was colorful, musical and enthusiastic, lasted roughly an hour, leaving spectators still fresh and ready for fun. As the march's final entry passed, spectators filed into the street, chatting and laughing, gathering several thousand participants in an unofficial but happy parade tail.
Queerfest greeted the visitors to Volunteer Park with two entertainment stages and a variety of vendor and information booths.
"Queerfest was an overwhelming success," said Shannon Thomas, executive director of the Seattle Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center, which organized the event. "Our community rallied together, and produced a Pride Festival on Capitol Hill that it can be proud of. From the Pride March to the Festival in the Park, we came together in unity and solidarity - and had a blast."
According to Thomas, the event was better attended and larger than last year, when Seattle Out and Proud sponsored a three-day festival at Seattle Center. This year, when organizers from last years' Pride Festival announced they were bankrupt and couldn't produce a festival, the Center stepped up and created a community-supported event to anchor a weekend of activities, including the Pride Parade downtown.
"If anything, our community learned that working together really is the key to our own victories, including producing a Pride weekend to be proud of," Thomas said.
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