Thursday, June 26, 2008

Post-Pride Depression

Well, I’m not really depressed. Just a month of working on a Pride float followed by a rest and recovery period has led to fewer posts in June. Sorry about that.

This is what I was working on . . .
And since I was in driving it in the Pride parade, I do not have any photos of the parade itself. But I did take a few at the rally before the parade in Burnet Woods.

Recent posts on Cinplify and Cincinnati Blog have discussed or suggested moving the parade to downtown and including Fountain Square in the festivities in some way. My reactions are mixed. I can see some in the "We’re here; We’re queer; Get used to it" faction thinking Burnet Woods and Northside are not visible enough. While I can see that some think Northside is a great fit due to slight off-beat and counter culture vibe and the fact that many consider it the closest thing to a "gayborhood" Cincinnati has. And then other sentiments like not every parade and festival needs to be downtown also resonate. In the end I think there is probably an interesting compromise there somewhere.

If I were puppetmaster it could be something like this . . .

Friday – Downtown
Noon: Rally on Fountain Square
5:00 PM: Homo Happy Hour on the Square
7:30 – 9:00 PM: The Queen’s Queer Concert on the Square (I’d like to recommend Tegan & Sara play)
Saturday – Clifton & Northside
11:00 AM: Pride Rally at Burnet Woods
1:00 PM: Pride Parade to Northside (With a better theme than "Celebrating Our Diversity")
1:00 – 8:00 PM: Pride Festival at Hoffner Park
Sunday – Over the Rhine
3:00 PM: Drag Races and the Post Pride Party

3 comments:

Barry Floore said...

I challenge you, Dan, then to start coming to the Coalition meetings with me. 100% I support your suggestions and I think we should storm in a make them true. LOL! :-) The next meeting is in July.

Heather said...

I say keep it in Northside! It's known for it's great parades: the Pride Parade and the 4th of July Parade! Suggesting the pre and post activities be held elsewhere (downtown and OTR) is a great suggestion.

dew said...

I say keep the parade in Northside as well. With the park, great bars and restaurants all condensed in one or two blocks of each other, the whole day on Sunday feels like one big party. My favorite thing to do that day is bounce from bar to bar to park to bar and see all the fun, differing crowds. I'm not sure this would be possible downtown, as it would inevitably be too spread out, losing some of it's steam.

Good ideas.