Proud Moment

Don't drive up to Capitol Hill for Pride this weekend, especially Sunday for the parade. Just don't do it. Take the bus. Walk. Cab. Get together with your friends and rig something up. Just don't add unneccesarily to what will surely be a gigantic mess.

There's already talk of moving the festival to Seattle Center or downtown next year. Seattlest isn't very excited by that idea and, not surprisingly, more than a few folks are strongly of the opinion that Pride belongs on the Hill.

From the P-I:

"I'm very much shocked," said Carl Medeiros, the gay owner of Panache who is leading the petition drive to persuade the Pride Committee to reconsider. "The neighborhood is not going to accept this. The neighborhood looks forward to this all year."

Victor Santiago, a bisexual who owns Cafe Septieme and the La Cocina Santiago restaurants on Broadway, said he plans to hang banners in the front of his stores during the June 26 procession, encouraging organizers not to let the event stray from Broadway.

Medeiros and other business owners are angry that longtime gay-friendly businesses on a struggling street stand to lose their most lucrative celebration of the year.

This will be the 31st Pride festival on Capitol Hill. Will there be a 32?

Timberline kicks things off tonight with a launch party. Saturday's events are in Volunteer park, including gay bingo, gay movies (Clueless) and gay music. It's going to be a squeeze in the park with 180 gay food, vendor and information booths and a hundred thousand or so revelers (gay and not). The parade is 11am Sunday and if you have trouble locating it Seattlest can't help you. Afterwards there's more gay music in the park, featuring Debby Holiday at 3pm.

Go to the festival. Be proud. Take pictures. Drink, holler and have a wild time. Don't drive there.