It’s official. Sarasota Pridefest will return in 2010, just much later than in recent years. The annual LGBT celebration will be on Saturday, Oct. 30, and has relocated to the streets of Sarasota, something attendees of the annual festival have requested for several years. Sarasota Pridefest 2010 will also be free to the public.
“We have secured the J.D. Hamel Park at Gulfstream and Main downtown,” said Sarasota Pride Board Member Cindy Barnes. “This is the first time we’ve ever had Sarasota Pride outdoors.”
The past two years, the Pride celebration has been at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, but Barnes said the organization has outgrown the facility and had encountered too many expenses and hurdles.
“Last year the biggest complaint we received concerned the beer line,” Barnes said. “The beer was warm and because of contracts we weren’t getting any proceeds from drinks or from food.”
So Barnes and the board approached the City of Sarasota, secured permits and changed the date. Barnes said she’s hoping for cooler temperatures during that time of year. Parking is abundant in the area, Barnes said, and she believes the 2010 event could bring out 2,500 to 3,000 people—nearly double last year’s attendance.
“A lot of people told us that they didn’t attend last year because of the $10 cover charge,” she said. “With it being free and outdoors this year, we’re expecting people from all over to participate. We’re marketing it as a destination Pride.”
There won’t be a promenade or parade during the Oct. 30 street festival, but Barnes said an equality march on Sunday, Oct. 24, will kick off a week of Pride events.
“We’re out and proud, finally,” Barnes said. “This event has been around for so long that it should be canned every year. But it’s been a struggle. It’s time for Sarasota Pride to turn the page and evolve and become a major event.”
The date and location of Sarasota Pridefest isn’t the only change or 2010. The board is looking to rebrand the organization and is accepting artists’ concepts for a new logo via its Web site. For more information on Sarasota Pridefest and for parameters surrounding the new logo, visit SarasotaPride.org.
