by Sarah Mieras
GRAND RAPIDS –
The Kalamazoo LGBT community is stepping into the spotlight with its first downtown Pride festival in recent memory on June 14.
The "It's A Family Affair" Pride festival is slated to rock the Arcadia Festival Site in the center of downtown Kalamazoo with live music, crafts for the kiddies, a doggy fashion show, drag show, and yes, a beer tent. Artists lined up for the day include Grand Rapids' lesbian folk rocker LVNMUZIQ, the Irish traditional group Whiskey Before Breakfast and the R&B group The Movement.
Urvashi Vaid, Executive Director of the Arcus Foundation will visit the festival to make an address to the crowd at 3 p.m. "Urvashi loves Kalamazoo, and was really excited to come and speak. I think she believes that Kalamazoo has come a long way," said event organizer Sarah Stangl.
Hailed as the Ann Arbor of west Michigan, Kalamazoo is steadily becoming a hot bed of progressive ideas, and a handful of community leaders believe the time is right for a large scale, highly visible pride event.
Serving as the fiduciary for the event, the Kalamazoo Gay and Lesbian Resource Center has spearheaded the planning of the city's first Pride festival. With LGBT issues at the forefront of recent local news, Stangl believes the time is right for Kalamazoo to host a major out-and-proud Pride festival.
"Things are in the media more and more here. People are even working to add gender expression to the city's non-discrimination policy and harassment policy. I think Kalamazoo is ready for this," said Stangl. "For some, just to think that Kalamazoo has enough gay people to warrant a festival is shocking. If we aren't seeking services at the Resource Center, or going to a gay bar, we forget that there is a community here."
To support this new, bigger, more public festival, said Stangl, the community will need to get involved – not only as attendants, but as volunteers. Organizers estimate about 100 volunteers will be needed to staff the event, and most of them are needed for the 10 a.m. set up process.
Like any pride event, breaking even on the costs is a concern. Although admission to the Arcadia Festival site is free, the organizers will gladly accept donations.
"We'll be lucky if we break even, but that's not why we are doing this," said Alison Strasser of the Resource Center. "One of our goals is to let people know that there is a gay community in Kalamazoo. We are hoping that if we have good turnout this year, people will start to see this as a legitimate event."
Strasser hopes funds raised from T-Shirt, beer and wine sales will cover most of the event's costs. The beverage tent will feature a special house wine from nearby Vintner's Cellars, complete with special Kalamazoo Pride labels.
Organizers are also hoping that the allies to the LGBT community will also turn out for the event, making June 14 a true celebration of the entire community. "Our allies are very welcome, and they are a very important part of our community," said Stangl.
Kalamazoo Pride
2-11 p.m. June 14
Arcadia Festival Site, Kalamazoo
http://www.kglrc.org/pride
Schedule:
10 a.m. Volunteer Set-Up
2 – 7 p.m. Festival and family fun area
3 p.m. Urvashi Vaid
3:30 p.m. LVNMUZIQ
5 p.m. Whiskey Before Breakfast
6:30 p.m. The Movement
7:45 p.m. Dog fashion show
8:30 p.m. DJ Flip Lopez
10 p.m. Drag show
