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

Stonewall Columbus Executive Director, Karla Rothan, interviews Pride Festival Performer Jade Esteban Estrada who will be performing with Lori Michaels: Me and the Girls on Saturday, June 28th on the Main Festival Stage.

They talk about what he has coming up, his past Columbus performances and what to expect from him at Columbus Pride 2008.

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Stonewall Columbus Executive Director, Karla Rothan, interviews Pride Festival Performer Unecc who will be performing with Unecc and Friends on Saturday, June 28th on the Main Festival Stage.

They talk about her performance at the Columbus Diversity Pride Events, what she has coming up and what to expect from them at Columbus Pride 2008.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.