The first annual Pride Picnic attracted hundreds of community members — 400 by lunch time alone — on a conveniently sunny Sunday in Volunteer park.
“[The picnic] is really to celebrate all the variations [on the definition of] the word family,” said Mark Chavez, vice president of development for Seattle Out & Proud.
According to Out & Proud president Eric Gauthier, the picnic was planned to be a true community event where members from the gay, bisexual and straight communities could gather as well as being a family friendly event in a neighborhood that hosts many events for gays over the age of 21, but not as many for the youth or people with young families.
Picnickers enjoyed food donated by local businesses with all proceeds from the food line going to Food Lifeline, a nonprofit organization seeking to end hunger in Western Washington.
In the lunch rush around 1 p.m., nearly 400 people–including happy children, happy parents and a few happy drag queens–had come through the food line and more attendants continued to file in throughout the event that featured live dance performances, a kids’ derby race, face painting, bounce castles and general revelry.
I thought the picnic was wonderful! I loved the music and the activities for the children! Good job, congratulations!!!
It was a great event, but it looks like they got a much larger turnout than they expected. I saw one friend who was waiting in the food line for an hour and it only moved 12 feet. Me and many others left because we didn’t want to wait that long. I wonder how much more they could have raised if they had better planning or faster cooking.
I agree with SeattleBrad…we left the picnic at about 2 because we had been in line for over an hour and only moved about 20 feet with small children to feed. Great event otherwise (as far as community, bouncy houses & climbing wall for kids, music & the idea of food), but the actual length & speed of the food line made us have to leave too early.
Here’s a photo of the food line… it started at the food tent on the left and continued behind the trees and continues on the right.
The park was perfect, the sun was out, the mood great.
The mood of a picnic, games, kids, friends, hanging out, all very well done.
Bottleneck of the food line was the grill …. folks arrived hungry, and they did not have grill capacity to do the burgers rapidly. Very good food, and drinks.
The food line will be fixed for next year, I am sure. Other than that glitch, perfect.
Agreed.
We waited for about an hour and we only got from one carp pond to the other. Then we went to 22 doors for brunch instead.
Great idea, bad planning.
Thanks to all that joined us at Volunteer Park for the 1st Annual Seattle Pride Picnic!! It was a huge success and had a larger turnout than expected.
Over 1000 people of all lifestyles, enjoying a beautiful day in the park together as one community.
We apologize for the long food lines. We are already talking about ideas for next year, and much more capacity for the food is definitely on our list. Thank you to Whole Foods for donating the food!
We welcome feedback and ideas from the community on how to make this an event even better. We are also open to hear what other types of events you would like attend. Feel free to e-mail us at [email protected] or go to http://www.seattlepride.org. From there you can see all our events, join our Facebook page or Twitter.
We are a 100% volunteer organization and are always looking for volunteers. Go to http://www.seattlepride.org and click on the volunteer tab to fill out a volunteer application.
Hope to see you all at the Seattle Pride Parade on June 27th. Downtown Seattle on 4th Ave @ 11:00 am.
In Pride,
-Eric
SO&P President
WHAT? I missed this for softball :(