Denver: Take More Pride In Your PrideFest

For an event with every color of the rainbow in its logo, Denver's annual PrideFest likes to work in shades of gray. Year after year, the festival ends up being a mixed bag of results that makes me wonder if there's a better way of doing things.

On the pro side, the amount of turnout in support of the LGBT community is always encouraging.

• Denver's festival is considered the largest in the region (since some neighboring mountain states don't offer much in the way of celebration).
• According to The Center, Colorado's primary LGBT resource, we're the third-largest festival in the country.
• The Center estimates that an average of 325,000 people attend annually, and this year's numbers were closer to 370,000.
• According to a recent study, Pride weekend generates an economic impact of $25 million for Denver restaurants, hotels, retail stores, bars, and other businesses.
• We also feature the nation's seventh-largest parade, representing almost 150 entities that range from community interests and allied churches to cultural outlets and politicians.

To me, the spirit of the parade is what Pride represents: not a numbers game, but an emphasis on the groups that reflect the LGBT population and promote the progressive attitudes of the state as a whole.

Meanwhile, the cons are dangerously close to stealing the pros' thunder. This year was the 40th anniversary of Denver's celebration, and milestone years tend to be when all of the stops are pulled out.

• Last year, we were teased with the possibility of Cyndi Lauper as this year's headlining act. In her absence, we should have gotten someone of a similar caliber. With all due respect to Mya -- a talented performer in her own right -- such a prominent festival in a milestone year should have been able to land an entertainer on par with the legacy and momentum of the LGBT movement over these last few decades.
• Another consideration is the amount of space. Civic Center Park already feels overcrowded, and if the event continues to grow as projected, alternate locations may eventually have to be utilized. Civic Center does have the added benefit of a built-in amphitheater, but portable stages are built all the time for these kinds of events.
• Gay and straight couples alike who have children often remark that they wish for a more family-oriented presence beyond the park's hard-partying atmosphere. What a missed opportunity! Local entities could be opening their doors with inclusive activities and workshops to make kids think about these important issues while still having fun.
• The corporate presence at the festival can be overwhelming and tiresome. While an event of this magnitude isn't possible without sponsorship, it can end up feeling like one giant, blurred-together commercial. This bombardment especially pulls focus during the parade, which should really be about the people and not the dollar signs.

In my humble opinion -- merely as an attendee and observer, not as any sort of expert in budgets or event planning -- here are a few suggestions that could really put Denver's PrideFest on the map and set an example among celebrations nationwide.

• First and foremost, PrideFest is held over the third weekend in June, and it always falls on Father's Day. Why not have the parade and the festival just on that Saturday? Not only would it avoid time conflicts with family plans (especially for those with fathers who sadly aren't supportive), but it would also consolidate resources and spending into a single blowout day of recognition.
• With Civic Center becoming too small for the expanding scale of the event, a number of possible venues could match the required capacity and still provide a central-enough location. Other parks like City, Cheesman, or Washington already host large summer events. Provided that the right permits are secured, any of these could be a logical next step. As a bonus, the influx of visitors would draw vital spending to those parts of town. It would also keep traffic and transit delays away from the hub of the already-busy central business district.
• There's one festival staple that can easily be done away with: those pesky food and beverage tickets. It's essentially a scam that X dollars will buy Z tickets, but items cost Y tickets, and somehow you always end up with leftover tickets that go to waste. The event can stay cash-only to avoid technical troubleshooting and processing fees, but a reasonably small entry fee could offset the ticket hassle and maybe even include a voucher for select items to get people started. This change would likely increase festival revenue because people would actually get what they paid for, rather than skipping on the snacks to go indulge at one of the not-as-close-as-you-think downtown establishments.
• Finally, reinventing traditional fundraising models would help reduce the corporate mentality and allow the festival to afford the next level of features. To draw out the big bucks, all the organizers have to do is incentivize the sponsorship opportunities and make them more competitive. By offering fewer tiers, but still providing the prestige of sponsoring specific aspects of the event, they would be leveraging those big company names to make things happen in mutually beneficial ways. They could even borrow ideas from crowdfunding and social media by raising festival funds with a specific mini-goals in mind -- rather than a generalized, less enticing "give us money for lots of things" -- to help meet the shifting needs and demands of the event from year to year.

In today's increasingly divided sociopolitical climate, a festival like PrideFest in a swing state like Colorado needs to make the best possible statement to demonstrate the capabilities of the LGBT community. This event is more than just a really big party; when planned and executed properly, it can be an effective public tool for advocacy, knowledge, outreach, and resilience. If we truly want to organize and mobilize to make a difference, let's start small with the potential that already exists. PrideFest may not be totally broken, but it could still use some fixing.