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from the editorial page of www.sovo.com
Don’t punish Pride over Piedmont Park
We all wish the festival didn’t have to move. The question now is whether we are willing to sacrifice our community’s largest annual show of force just to make a point.
By LAURA DOUGLAS-BROWN
JUN. 27, 2008
Oh, I don’t think I’m going to Pride this year.
The Civic Center isn’t a good location. They should have kept it in Piedmont Park. Everybody likes it better there. We should stay home so the Pride Committee will know they should move it back.
Anyway, everybody is busy on the Fourth of July. They should have kept it in June. They should move it to the fall when it’s cooler. They should have Pride inside. Pride needs to be in a park.
Besides, Pride is too commercial. There are too many corporate sponsors. I don’t want to have to pay to go to any Pride events. Pride should be free.
Pride should be more political. It’s all too big of a party. The Civic Center isn’t a good place to hold a party. Pride is getting boring. It should be more serious. It should be more fun.
They need to change Pride. It’s always the same. Pride used to be great. Why’d they have to go and change it?
In the months since Southern Voice first started reporting on the possibility that Pride would have to move out of its traditional home in Piedmont Park, I’ve had these conversations hundreds of times.
In the last couple of weeks, as the Pride Festival nears, it feels like I’ve had them at least a hundred more.
The details change, but the overall point is always the same: the person speaking wishes Pride was still going to be in Piedmont Park.
Guess what? We all do. But it’s not, and the question now is whether we are willing to sacrifice our community’s largest annual show of force in a vain attempt to make a misunderstood point.
One more time, let’s be clear: Pride did not choose to move out of Piedmont Park. City officials forced all large festivals out of the park due to concerns about wear-and-tear on the grass during the region’s drought.
No one wanted to move. Everyone had to. The Dogwood Festival went to the parking lot of Lenox Mall, where they lost tons of money (not helped by rain). The Peachtree Road Race is ending at the Atlanta Civic Center, the same day that Pride starts. Pride officials chose the Civic Center as a way to keep the festival in town. No weekends in June, the traditional Gay Pride month, were available.
If we all stay home to protest Pride being booted from Piedmont Park, who do we hurt? Not the city leaders and park officials who fret that the grass can’t stand the trampling of our rainbow. And not the anti-gay politicians who will have proof that our community isn’t as strong as we say.
Instead, we hurt the Pride Committee, those women and men who are doing their best with a bad situation. We hurt the corporate sponsors who recognize us as a viable constituency (and yes, put up the money that keeps most of Pride free for attendees).
We hurt the community organizations that help pass donation buckets at Pride to raise money for the festival and their own causes, and who rely on the three-day event as their largest outreach for new members each year.
In other words, we just hurt ourselves.
IT’S OKAY TO BE DISAPPOINTED that Pride is at the Civic Center. It’s hard to imagine the festival that once centered on hanging out on Piedmont Park’s grassy lawns divided between parking lots and indoor venues.
It’s okay to be angry, too. As you can see from the reader comments on the facing page, we’re angry at city officials who won’t commit even to letting us return to Piedmont Park next year; we’re angry at neighborhood groups who may not be thrilled to have large events in their midst, yet chose to live near a park that hosts festivals; and we’re angry at Piedmont Park’s caretakers, who some feel are overzealous in protecting the park’s grass over its purpose as the city’s unofficial backyard.
But staying home from Pride is not the way to show that anger. Instead, we need to go to this year’s festival more even than in previous years, and experience firsthand all of the changes: the location and atmosphere of the Civic Center, the addition of ticketed events, the placement of some Pride events indoors.
THE TRUTH IS THAT complaints about Pride didn’t start with the move out of Piedmont Park, although that has become a convenient focus for them. Every year, there are people who complain that Pride is either too party-oriented or too political; too hot, or too formulaic.
Change is never easy, especially for an institution as massive as Pride, that gets so much conflicting feedback from its attendees.
Still, after being forced to break from their successful but somewhat predictable Piedmont Park routine, Pride organizers have gone out on a limb this year, offering a range of new events.
For those who argue that Pride needs to be a better party, they offer a major ticketed Friday night concert. For those who argue that Pride isn’t political enough, they expanded the Human Rights Exhibit that debuted last year to have specific ways to take action right there at the festival.
For those who argue that Pride is too hot, they have multiple booths and events indoors. And for those who argue that Pride has become stale, they offer new events like a poker tournament and a poetry slam.
THE FATE OF THIS year’s festival will chart the course of all future Prides to come, and attending next weekend’s celebration is your chance to vote with your feet about what you like and don’t like.
Pride organizers need to pay close attention to which changes and new events are successful, and which aren’t. And they need to pay close attention to comments from festival attendees, both positive and negative.
By the morning of July 7, as they clean up from Pride 2008, they will have a much clearer picture of what the community wants from Pride, and where they need to focus for 2009.
It may well be that the message is that Pride needs to fight to return to Piedmont Park, or some other park-like setting. But none of us can really know that if we don’t turn out for this year’s festival, to experience the alternative.
This page holds about 1,000 words, but really, this column could be summed up in only three:
Go to Pride.
Don’t punish Pride over Piedmont Park
We all wish the festival didn’t have to move. The question now is whether we are willing to sacrifice our community’s largest annual show of force just to make a point.
By LAURA DOUGLAS-BROWN
JUN. 27, 2008
Oh, I don’t think I’m going to Pride this year.
The Civic Center isn’t a good location. They should have kept it in Piedmont Park. Everybody likes it better there. We should stay home so the Pride Committee will know they should move it back.
Anyway, everybody is busy on the Fourth of July. They should have kept it in June. They should move it to the fall when it’s cooler. They should have Pride inside. Pride needs to be in a park.
Besides, Pride is too commercial. There are too many corporate sponsors. I don’t want to have to pay to go to any Pride events. Pride should be free.
Pride should be more political. It’s all too big of a party. The Civic Center isn’t a good place to hold a party. Pride is getting boring. It should be more serious. It should be more fun.
They need to change Pride. It’s always the same. Pride used to be great. Why’d they have to go and change it?
In the months since Southern Voice first started reporting on the possibility that Pride would have to move out of its traditional home in Piedmont Park, I’ve had these conversations hundreds of times.
In the last couple of weeks, as the Pride Festival nears, it feels like I’ve had them at least a hundred more.
The details change, but the overall point is always the same: the person speaking wishes Pride was still going to be in Piedmont Park.
Guess what? We all do. But it’s not, and the question now is whether we are willing to sacrifice our community’s largest annual show of force in a vain attempt to make a misunderstood point.
One more time, let’s be clear: Pride did not choose to move out of Piedmont Park. City officials forced all large festivals out of the park due to concerns about wear-and-tear on the grass during the region’s drought.
No one wanted to move. Everyone had to. The Dogwood Festival went to the parking lot of Lenox Mall, where they lost tons of money (not helped by rain). The Peachtree Road Race is ending at the Atlanta Civic Center, the same day that Pride starts. Pride officials chose the Civic Center as a way to keep the festival in town. No weekends in June, the traditional Gay Pride month, were available.
If we all stay home to protest Pride being booted from Piedmont Park, who do we hurt? Not the city leaders and park officials who fret that the grass can’t stand the trampling of our rainbow. And not the anti-gay politicians who will have proof that our community isn’t as strong as we say.
Instead, we hurt the Pride Committee, those women and men who are doing their best with a bad situation. We hurt the corporate sponsors who recognize us as a viable constituency (and yes, put up the money that keeps most of Pride free for attendees).
We hurt the community organizations that help pass donation buckets at Pride to raise money for the festival and their own causes, and who rely on the three-day event as their largest outreach for new members each year.
In other words, we just hurt ourselves.
IT’S OKAY TO BE DISAPPOINTED that Pride is at the Civic Center. It’s hard to imagine the festival that once centered on hanging out on Piedmont Park’s grassy lawns divided between parking lots and indoor venues.
It’s okay to be angry, too. As you can see from the reader comments on the facing page, we’re angry at city officials who won’t commit even to letting us return to Piedmont Park next year; we’re angry at neighborhood groups who may not be thrilled to have large events in their midst, yet chose to live near a park that hosts festivals; and we’re angry at Piedmont Park’s caretakers, who some feel are overzealous in protecting the park’s grass over its purpose as the city’s unofficial backyard.
But staying home from Pride is not the way to show that anger. Instead, we need to go to this year’s festival more even than in previous years, and experience firsthand all of the changes: the location and atmosphere of the Civic Center, the addition of ticketed events, the placement of some Pride events indoors.
THE TRUTH IS THAT complaints about Pride didn’t start with the move out of Piedmont Park, although that has become a convenient focus for them. Every year, there are people who complain that Pride is either too party-oriented or too political; too hot, or too formulaic.
Change is never easy, especially for an institution as massive as Pride, that gets so much conflicting feedback from its attendees.
Still, after being forced to break from their successful but somewhat predictable Piedmont Park routine, Pride organizers have gone out on a limb this year, offering a range of new events.
For those who argue that Pride needs to be a better party, they offer a major ticketed Friday night concert. For those who argue that Pride isn’t political enough, they expanded the Human Rights Exhibit that debuted last year to have specific ways to take action right there at the festival.
For those who argue that Pride is too hot, they have multiple booths and events indoors. And for those who argue that Pride has become stale, they offer new events like a poker tournament and a poetry slam.
THE FATE OF THIS year’s festival will chart the course of all future Prides to come, and attending next weekend’s celebration is your chance to vote with your feet about what you like and don’t like.
Pride organizers need to pay close attention to which changes and new events are successful, and which aren’t. And they need to pay close attention to comments from festival attendees, both positive and negative.
By the morning of July 7, as they clean up from Pride 2008, they will have a much clearer picture of what the community wants from Pride, and where they need to focus for 2009.
It may well be that the message is that Pride needs to fight to return to Piedmont Park, or some other park-like setting. But none of us can really know that if we don’t turn out for this year’s festival, to experience the alternative.
This page holds about 1,000 words, but really, this column could be summed up in only three:
Go to Pride.