Philly Pride Presents celebrates 25 years

At least 10,000 people are expected to flock to Philadelphia for the June 9 Pride Parade and Festival and, this year, organizers are expecting the entertainment and participants — including a villainous reality star, a new DJ and a group of firefighters — to be even hotter than the weather. Philly Pride Presents executive director Franny Price said the weekend-long celebration will start with the second annual kick-off party from 6-11 p.m. June 7 on 12th street between Walnut and Spruce. “The kick-off party is going to be a lot of fun. We are excited about that because we will have a lot of amusement and it is a great way to kick off Pride weekend,” she said. Attendees will be able to play miniature golf, ride a mechanical shark, dance and stop into parties thrown by the sea of bars and nightclubs in the Gayborhood. On Sunday, the parade will step off from 13th and Locust at noon, head down Locust, over Seventh Street, down Market Street and proceed towards Penn’s Landing. Price said this year has seen a record number of parade contingents. “We have more people registered to participate in the parade than we have ever had,” she said. “At Pride last year, we had 51 participants, and now we already have 58 people and that is not counting last-minute participants. We never turn anyone away. If you do show up on the day, we will find a spot for you.” Price said the parade is unlike others. “Our parade is unique to Philly. We have 20-something floats and a lot of our contingents do performances and it is kind of unique to Philly and very entertaining.” Both new groups and old favorites would march in the parade. For the first time, CIGNA Health will participate along with parade favorite Woodbury Heights Fire Department. “They are always the highlight of the parade and they come with a fire truck and the men always come in their fire hats. They didn’t do it for the last two years, but they are back and that’s exciting,” Price said. Price said 160 vendors are signed up to be at the festival. This year will be the first year that book bags are prohibited at the festival due to the recent bombing at the Boston Marathon. Also new to the festival is DJ June Rodriguez. “We used DJ June for Winter Pride and everybody loved him,” Price said. “So it was time for a change.” This year’s headliner is “The Apprentice contestant” Omarosa Manigault, and the rest of the lineup also includes gay mentalist Bob Lawson. “We try to be unique and think of people nobody else thinks of,” Price said. “We have so many Prides in Pennsylvania and near us that we don’t want to have a chain reaction; we don’t have headliners that we can see everywhere at other Prides. We try to be unique to Philly.” Pride will also honor local LGBT and ally leaders, including grand marshals Larry Felzer and Amber Hikes; Friend of Pride Jim Julia; and youth grand marshals Lillian Rodriguez and Oberon Wackwitz from The Attic Youth Center. Chris Bartlett, executive director of the William Way LGBT Community Center, will sing the unofficial gay national anthem, “I Am What I Am.” “We’ve had people sing it solo, sing to a track or on the piano. We had people start it in the mid-’90s and the point is everybody loves that song and it is easy to sing and people will sing along,” Price said. “I know that Chris is a musical person. We try to have a special person sing the song and Chris is very special to our community and we are very proud that he will sing it.” It is unclear whether antigay protestors will show up, but Price said the community has become accustomed to handling them. “They show up and our community is getting more and more used to them and ignoring them,” she said. “My advice to the community: Don’t pay them attention.” Price noted that Pride is a good networking day for organizations and businesses, as well as a day of empowerment for individuals. “Pride day is about visibility and celebration and you come to Pride day to celebrate being proud of who you are. It is more than just a party — there is something for everyone. There is a pet zone, family zone, all the sports leagues are there, there is dancing, and hopefully some people will join an organization. You want to stay because it is Pride and there are so many things going on.” For more information on Pride, visit www.phillypride.org .