JUNE PRIDE MONTH is right around the corner and your Pride Committee is ready to present to you one of the best Prides to ever hit Columbus, Ohio. Goodale Park is going to be a fabulous location for the 2009 Stonewall Columbus Pride Festival and its 120,000 or so guests. We are looking forward to seeing YOU at Goodale Park on June 19 and June 20!

Yes, that is correct! Stonewall Columbus Pride is a TWO-DAY event this year. We are in a new venue so we are going to “kick it up a notch” for you, as my friend Emeril says. BUY YOUR OFFICIAL PRIDE DOG TAG OR WRISTBAND NOW FOR $10 and you have entrance to both days of Pride Fun.

Day 1 of the Pride Festival – Friday, June 19 – will include our usual festival attractions of exhibitors, food, and beverages with the gates opening at 5:00 p.m. Two stages of entertainment will also be presented that night, starting at 6:00 p.m. The event formerly known as “Rockin’ in the Streets” is now part of the Pride package this year. Melissa Ferrick will headline the energetic “Rockin’ ‘” Stage on Friday, and we will also feature Columbus favorite Trina Hamlin, among others. The “Gayzebo” Stage headliner on Friday is Josh Zuckerman and he will be joined by many others. Stay tuned for “Entertainment Updates” as other information is released.

Saturday, June 20 brings Day 2 of the Pride Festival. The gates open at 11:00 a.m. that day and we will celebrate into the night with the Festival ending at 9:00 p.m. Saturday will include numerous featured entertainers, including Headliner Kat DeLuna. Kat has toured with Cyndi Lauper and Rosie O’Donnell on the “True Colors” Tour and was recently featured at the “White Party” in Palm Springs. Check her out! She’s fabulous! We are so thrilled to have her with us this year!

Along with the excitement of a new venue comes a few changes. The Pride Rally is on Saturday, June 20, at 11:30 a.m. at The Statehouse Lawn. The Pride Parade Step-Off follows at 1:00 p.m. from THE STATEHOUSE, traveling north on High Street, then heading into Goodale Park. Another big change this year is that NO COOLERS will be permitted in Goodale Park. It is a neighborhood park, keep in mind. So, if you come to Pride with a cooler, please know you will be asked to leave it at one of the Toll Booth Entrances. There will also be some new guidelines in place for the Toll Booths this year, so stay tuned for those updates, as well.

HAPPY PRIDE – SEE YOU THE WEEKEND OF JUNE 19 AND JUNE 20!

First of all, I would like to send a big THANK YOU to all of the sponsors who have been so generous to Stonewall Columbus Pride over the years. Your partnerships have continued to help us promote and produce one of the largest and most popular Prides in the country. Thanks again, and we look forward to your return this year for Stonewall Columbus Pride 2009.

We have recently updated our Sponsorship Proposals and they are now available online here on the site.  Along with the common Festival Sponsorships, we have added new areas for sponsorship opportunities, including Golf Cart Sponsorship and Temporary Restrooms Sponsorship. These two areas are highly visible and would be a fun way for you to promote your business to the 120,000+ projected to be at Pride 2009. We also have sponsorship opportunities available for our Special Events, including “An Exhibit of Pride,” “Fore! Pride,” “Run for Pride 5K,” “Pride Poker Run,” and “Pride Brunch.” Please contact me should you like to schedule a meeting to discuss our many sponsorship opportunities. We look forward to seeing all of you at Stonewall Columbus Pride 2009!

Want to be a Food Vendor at Pride this year? Want to promote your business, organization, or cause? Want to march or have a float in the Pride Parade? If you answered “YES!” to any of these questions, then we have all of the necessary documents for you to submit. Simply download our “Pride Participant Packet” located on our site here and submit the necessary payment and forms to me in a timely manner. If you have any questions, give me a call or shoot me an email! We look forward to having you join us at Goodale Park this year!

Click Here to Download the Pride Participation Packet

or visit this page for more information: http://www.columbuspride.org/participateinpride

Greetings to all of you!  Stonewall Columbus Pride 2009 will be here before you know it!  Mark your calendars now for the weekend of June 19-21. This weekend celebration is a week earlier than usual, so plan accordingly!

Festivities this year will be held at Goodale Park, located on Park and Goodale. Bicentennial Park is completely under construction.  We are very excited to bring Pride back to the neighborhood!  The Pride Parade will step off from Ohio’s very own Statehouse on State/High  on Saturday, June 20, at 1:00 p.m.

Stay tuned to the website for updates and information on volunteering, registering for vendor, booth space, and parade entry, and other exciting details!  We look forward to seeing you in June!

We did not have the power to change the direction of the storm on Saturday for Pride 2008 but we sure had a fabulous day. By the time the rain hit Bicentennial Park, there were 120,000 people who marched along High Street and attended the festival. This was the biggest and best Pride ever with over 100 floats and groups marching and over 150 vendors exhibiting. Janet Jackson served as our Grand Marshal this year and the United Way of Central Ohio had ninety people marching along side of her. Some folks called the event “electrifying and flashy.” Those comments may have referred to the lightning; nevertheless the over 300 volunteers including Pride committee members took the compliment to heart. The headliner Jennifer Holliday was not able to perform due to weather conditions but did take the stage at AXIS nightclub later that evening. Events were scheduled all month long and each of them was extremely well attended. Brunch on Sunday, June 29 had 250 in attendance including Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner, City Attorney Richard Pfeiffer and a variety of political figures. Stonewall Columbus thanks the countless volunteers and sponsors who made this day happen. Next year, Pride weekend will be held June 19-21 at Goodale Park. We welcome your comments and suggestions: visit http://columbuspride.org/survey to take the survey.

Congratulations to our Winners of the Parade Contest. A thanks goes to our judges, Joe Baer, Mary Ellen O’Shaughnessy and John Angelo who made the tough following choices:

Float Most Closely aligned with the theme, “Our Power” – Girth and Mirth
Best Contingency – United Way of Central Ohio
Most Outrageous – Exile
Most Creative – Gay Men’s Chorus
Best Float – Wall Street Nightclub