The cost of Pride

This past week, the city’s budget crisis hit home for Philadelphia’s LGBT community.

After years of receiving traffic and crowd control services without charge, like other parades and events, the city notified Philadelphia Pride Presents just how much the police were going to charge the organization for those services. Starting with the Pride Parade. Taking place June 14. Less than two weeks away when they were notified.

Ever since the city announced its budget shortfalls last fall, and that it would be charging for event services, groups have been nervously waiting to hear what the impact would be and how it would affect them.

Another event feeling the pain this week is Odunde, which is reportedly required to pay $85,000 for three days of police, fire and other services for its event on June 12-14, with a June 10 deadline to put down a $27,500 deposit.

Other events that have had to face new costs — or actual funding cuts — include the Mummers Parade, the St. Patrick’s Day Parade and the Philadelphia International Cycling Championship.

For many of the groups, raising tens of thousands of dollars, and in some cases more than $100,000, isn’t a quick and easy task.

For instance, the Pride festival is Philly Pride Presents’ major fundraiser, covering the event itself, the parade and OutFest in October.

Meaning, the group doesn’t have an extra $20 grand sitting in the bank the week before Pride.

Frankly, the city has not been as forthcoming with cost information as it could — and should — be. Yes, this process is new for everyone, so all parties involved should be proactive in getting as much information as possible as early as possible.

But if the city expects groups to raise thousands of dollars to pay for police and other services, the organizations need to know well in advance so they can plan how they will raise said funds. Likewise, the city needs to be highly transparent on how the costs are incurred — and how to minimize those costs.

In the instance of Philly Pride, the city requested payment and a deposit before providing a cost breakdown for the services. From a position of financial responsibility, who in their right mind is going to hand over thousands of dollars without reviewing a contract and cost breakdown beforehand?

By this point, more than six months after the city announced it would begin charging for event services, it should really have better communications processes in place. Establishing working partnerships with organizations is essential to putting on successful events — and the city should be doing all it can to cultivate those relationships.

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