Tag Archives: pride

CHS Pics | Broadway, Cal Anderson, and Volunteer Park filled with crowds and love as Seattle celebrates its 50th Pride

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PrideFest filled Broadway

The Dyke March mixed with the PrideFest street festival Saturday night on Broadway in a familiar and fun scene in the middle of Capitol Hill’s annual June celebration of queer community, culture, love, and, yes, commerce.

While Pride 2024 weekend didn’t have the sunny, blue skies of 2023, crowds still filled Broadway, Cal Anderson Park, and the AIDS Memorial Plaza where organizers also added Drag Queen Storytime and a pet drag show to the mix.

The night before, a sliver sky also greeted the 2024 edition of Trans Pride Seattle to its home this year in Volunteer Park where organizers at the Gender Justice League continued a grassroots ethos, forgoing corporate sponsorship, and sustaining the annual rally and party “to honor and carry the torch of our Transcestors who originated Pride as a means of both resistance and cultural communion.”

Friday’s Trans Pride

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Capitol Hill Pride: Seattle’s 50th Pride weekend brings Trans Pride to Volunteer Park, Seattle Dyke March and PrideFest street festival to Broadway

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Pride in the Park from the air as Volunteer Park got the 2024 Pride season off to a solid start earlier this month

As the city prepares to mark Seattle’s 50th Pride celebration with Sunday’s annual downtown parade, Capitol Hill will again be busy with events marking the neighborhood’s importance in queer history and community. Here is a look at the Pride 2024 weekend ahead. Happy Capitol Hill Pride.

FRIDAY JUNE 28th — TRANS PRIDE SEATTLE: The city’s celebration of Trans Pride will take another turn in Volunteer Park this year after moving into the park last year to mark its 10th anniversary. While the performers have increased in stature and social media status, organizers at the Gender Justice League have continued a grassroots ethos, forgoing corporate sponsorship, and sustaining the annual rally and party “to honor and carry the torch of our Transcestors who originated Pride as a means of both resistance and cultural communion.” You can view a list of scheduled performers and speakers and learn more about Friday’s event here. — More info on the CHS Calendar

SATURDAY JUNE 29th — PRIDEFEST CAPITOL HILL: This is the big street festival and fair in Cal Anderson Park you’ve been waiting for. Organizers are back in 2024 with plans to close Broadway from John to Roy, turn Barbara Bailey Way into a festival street, and fill Cal Anderson with Drag Queen Storytime, a pet drag show, and the PrideFest Capitol Hill Dance Party with C89.5 DJs to close it all down. — More info on the CHS Calendar

SATURDAY JUNE 29th — SEATTLE DYKE MARCH: The annual Dyke March is moving back onto Broadway as organizers have grown their group into the new Seattle Dyke Alliance with a mission that extends beyond the popular march. After moving into Volunteer Park last year, the march is getting back to its roots and marking its 30th year with a rally from 5 to 7 PM in the Seattle Central plaza followed by the traditional march through the neighborhood and up Broadway to mingle with the PrideFest festivities. The march echoes with the decades of fights for rights and safety in the community. No worries, the Dykes on Bikes will also be on hand. “This is a protest – no police escort,” organizers write. “Know the risks, see you there.”  — More info on the CHS Calendar

JUNE 29th AND 30th — PRIDE WEEKEND — Varies!: Capitol Hill’s Pride weekend parties and beer gardens along Pike/Pine and Broadway have grown in scale with streets closed to traffic and multiple stages. As usual, Sunday’s big parade takes place downtown.

A scene from the 2023 PrideFest street festival on Broadway

 

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A Pride Punk Rock Flea Market on Capitol Hill and what comes next for the old 15th Ave E QFC

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The old 15th Ave QFC went back into motion this weekend after a handful of years blocke-off by fences and plywood thanks to corporate cost cutting, city politics, and the long haul to developing large-scale housing in Seattle.

The Punk Rock Flea Market didn’t seem to care about all that as vendors filled the old grocery store Saturday and even spilled out into the surface parking lot destined to eventually be part of the demolition that will make way for a planned 6-story, “S” design building with 170 new apartment units above 10,000 square feet of retail space and underground parking for 99 vehicles.

PFRM organizers have been overhauling the old grocery for weeks with a team of volunteers readying the space as the next short to mid to ???-term home for the roving flea market. This weekend’s debut market celebrated Pride and was open Saturday and Sunday featuring more than 150 vendors, organizers said.

Property owner and Capitol Hill developer Hunters Capital has been trying to keep the space activated and settled on the flea market as one solution as it finalizes the long cycles of paperwork and financing required to develop the property. Continue reading →

Check out ‘Mighty Realer – A Very Queer Art Show’ during tonight’s Capitol Hill Art Walk Pride edition

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Thursday is the Pride edition of the monthly Capitol Hill Art Walk with more than 20 studios, galleries, and venues officially participating — and the rest of the Hill unofficially participating as you enjoy a warm-ish June evening in the neighborhood.

A core to this month’s Art Walk will be on 11th Ave at the Vermillion art bar where the Mighty Realer queer arts showcase follows up on last year’s Mighty Real show.

The 2024 edition features artists including Anouk Rawkson, Jordan Christianson, Kerstin Graudins, David Van Der Linden, Casey Curran, Maybe, Jeff Legere, Tony Barnes, Kelly O, Richard Peacock, Christopher Ando, Julianee Mendoza, and Ruben David.

It is going to be so -er. Continue reading →

Seattle Parks backs off plan for nude zone but says Friends of Denny Blaine improvements coming

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(Image: Seattle Parks)

(Image: Seattle Parks)

Seattle Park says it will not move forward with a proposal shaping a new nude and neighbor-friendly policy for Denny Blaine Park that would have created two zones across the public space on the shores of Lake Washington. But its efforts to improve the popular sunbathing spot will continue with help from neighbors and the growing Friends of Denny Blaine community group.

“We appreciate all members of the community for providing feedback and heartfelt thoughts about Denny Blaine Park—our parks system is made better by the engagement and advocacy of residents and users,” Seattle Parks and Rec said in its announcement. “Through the community engagement process it became clear that the suggested guidelines were already covered under existing Parks Code.”

CHS reported here on the proposal that would have split the park across Zone A near the water where visitors are invited to enjoy the space with or without a swimsuit ,and Zone B around the park’s entrance where visitors are asked to wear clothing or, at least, a towel. The parks department said comment regarding the proposed “supplemental use guidelines” for Denny Blaine closed on June 6th and that feedback did not line up with codifying nudity in the beach park popular in nudist and queer communities. Continue reading →

New signal box portraits bring familiar faces to Broadway for Seattle’s 50th Pride

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This year’s Capitol Hill Pride will bring familiar faces to Broadway. The Broadway Business Improvement Area announced that traffic signal boxes up and down the street are now wrapped with new Pride portraits of LGBTQIA+ heroes in Seattle history.

Portraits include Cal Anderson, the state’s first openly gay legislator and park namesake, Judge Mary Yu, who officiated many of the city’s first same-sex marriages the day Washington legalized the vows in 2014, Ingersoll Gender Center founder Marsha Botzer, ACT-UP organizer Brian Day, and Wildrose bar owners Martha Manning and Shelley Brothers.

“Through our economic recovery grant, we employed local queer and trans artists to portray individuals who made a difference in the LGBTQIA+ community in Seattle, as chosen by a PrideFest selection committee,” the BBIA said about the new project. “The process took two and a half years but we are finally there.” Continue reading →

37 pictures from Saturday’s Volunteer Park start to Seattle Pride 2024: best looks, best t-shirt messages, and best response to bible megaphone guy

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Seattle’s 50th year of Pride celebrations started with a party Saturday in Volunteer Park.

Organizers from the city’s official Seattle Pride group say some 12,000 people attended Saturday’s free event of music, drag, DJs, dance, and fun that has grown into the annual kickoff for June’s festivities.

While there will now be a lull before the largest Pride events take place in Seattle to end the month, you’ll find plenty of smaller parties and celebrations across the city and at venues across Capitol Hill including Seattle’s strongest concentration of queer bars and clubs up and down Pike, Pine, and Broadway.

Make sure to save some energy. Capitol Hill’s Pride 2024 calendar has a few highlights to look forward to:

JUNE 22ND AND 23RD — Punk Rock Flea Market Capitol Hill: “The Punk Rock Flea Market continues our never-ending tour of Seattle and environs by bringing our patented blend of bargains, beats and booze to the VERY CENTER of PNW alternative culture – the Queer Bohemian wonderland of Capitol Hill!” — More info on the CHS Calendar

JUNE 22ND — Capitol Hill Pride: The organizers at Capitol Hill Pride are tenacious. They’ve stubbornly continued to hold their “march and rally” for 15 years now in longstanding opposition to the much larger Seattle PrideFest group’s efforts. They have a doggie drag costume contest. Seattle PrideFest has a doggie drag contest. Might as well enter both. The grassroots approach usually means pretty underwhelming participation and crowds in the dozens but, if nothing else, it can be interesting to see who gets roped in every year. In 2024, the organizers are boasting planned participation by the Mexican consulate. You can learn more at capitolhillpridefestival.info.

JUNE 29TH — PrideFest Capitol Hill: This is the big street festival and fair in Cal Anderson Park you’re thinking of. Organizers are back in 2024 with plans to close Broadway from John to Roy, turn Barbara Bailey Way into a festival street, and fill Cal Anderson with Drag Queen Storytime, a pet drag show, and the PrideFest Capitol Hill Dance Party with C89.5 DJs to close it all down. — More info on the CHS Calendar

JUNE 29TH AND 30TH — PRIDE WEEKEND — Varies!: Capitol Hill’s Pride weekend parties and beer gardens along Pike/Pine and Broadway have grown in scale with streets closed to traffic and multiple stages. As usual, Sunday’s big parade takes place downtown.

More scenes from Saturday’s Pride in the Park, below.

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Seattle’s 50th year of Pride begins with Saturday’s Pride in the Park on Capitol Hill

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The 50th anniversary celebration of Pride in Seattle will begin Saturday with the return of the annual Pride in the Park day of music, drag, DJs, dance, and fun in Capitol Hill’s Volunteer Park.

While the annual Broadway parade and party in Volunteer Park tradition didn’t start until 1980, celebrants will be remembering 1974 and the city’s first celebration of queer love:

Seattle Pride in the Park will kick off Seattle’s 50th annual Pride Month celebration on Saturday, June 1 at Volunteer Park on Capitol Hill. From 12pm – 7pm, Seattle Pride in the Park will feature a can’t-miss lineup of LGBTQIA+ performances, a dance-focused stage with an adjacent alcohol garden (21+), food trucks, local nonprofit booths, queer vendors, and more. The free event also includes plenty of family friendly fare – including Drag Queen Storytime – and a teen space designed and hosted by youth in a collaborative internship between Seattle’s LGBTQ Center and Seattle Pride.

The annual Volunteer Park event has become the traditional start of a month of Pride celebrations in Seattle and on Capitol Hill including the Broadway street fair, beer gardens along Pike/Pine, and the downtown parade.

Here is a look at some of the scenes from last year’s sunny Pride in the Park start.

 

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‘Queer visibility’ — Queer/Pride announces 2024 lineup for growing Capitol Hill music festival

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(Image: Queer/Pride Festival)

 

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As it joins in a fight to push back on the outmoded and misguided policies of “lewd conduct” enforcement, Capitol Hill’s Queer/Bar family of LGBTQIA+ bars and clubs is getting ready for a party and a 2024 Pride celebration of being seen and heard across the country.

Continuing efforts to grow its annual Pride party to join with celebrations at other nearby venues into a weekend neighborhood street party across Pike/Pine, the Queer/Pride Festival has announced its 2024 lineup including Tegan and Sara, Santigold, Rico Nasty, and Perfume Genius.

“Our mission is to create a safe and fun space for our Pacific Northwest lgbtqiak+ community to celebrate our culture, honor our history, strengthen our unity, and recognize our diversity,” Joey Burgess said in the announcement this week on the acts planned to headline this year’s party on 11th Ave. “We strive to generate Queer visibility throughout our festival, Seattle, and the nation,” Burgess said.

CHS reported here in 2023 on the effort to grow Queer/Pride as a three-day music festival of near Capitol Hill Block Party proportions. Organizers point out that street festival and the beer gardens at neighborhood bars take up a much smaller footprint than the annual Block Party but the growth of the three-day, ticketed event is undeniable. Continue reading →

CHS Pics | What it looked like when the Seattle Dyke March moved into Volunteer Park

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Another Capitol Hill Pride has come and gone but let’s soak up a little more of the celebratory vibes and causes of June 2023 in the neighborhood’s annual festivities and rallies. Here is what it looked like on Broadway. And here is it what looked like in Volunteer Park as the Seattle Dyke March started on its path to a new era for the annual event.

CHS reported on the changes for the Dyke March as organizers looked to a new focus for the event beyond the annual march while also hoping to establish a new home for the gathering. Continue reading →