Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Texas
Related: About this forumAustin Gay Pride Draws Record Crowd, But Not Everyone’s Happy
Austins LGBT Pride celebration drew 350,000 people last Saturday, according to organizers, making it the largest single-day event in a city that is also home to numerous major festivals, including South By Southwest:
However, not everyone who attended (or tried to attend) this years Pride celebration came away satisfied. Veteran local LGBT journalist Ann Rostow writes:
I may have mentioned in previous years that Austin Pride is scheduled for different, seemingly random, weekends and I never can figure out when the damn celebration is supposed to occur. At first we moved from late June to sometime in September in order to beat the heat. Thats fine, but somehow we have moved it back to late August, which is far hotter than late June. We also have a nighttime parade, which helps, but again, we could have done that in June as well.
At any rate, Mel and I dutifully trekked over to the festival the other day, only to learn that wed have to pay $20 each in order to wander aimlessly around collecting keychains and pens from our local real estate agents and financial planners. Oh, and lets not forget signing up for contests that trigger a year or so of spam and winding up with a dozen fliers about lesbians who save gorillas or GLBT projects in Appalachiaall of which are great, by the way, but hello? Dont they want people to attend in order to make it worthwhile for the people who buy booth space? Am I crazy, or wouldnt you expect to pay five dollars or maximum ten in order to enter a pride festival? Its not as if some fabulous entertainment was lurking within.
Hey, Ive been to enough of these for one lifetime, and were happy to support the community, but this was extortion. We left on principle, and since we saved $40 we had some oysters and a couple of glasses of wine for free.
Read more and watch video at http://www.towleroad.com/2016/09/austin-gay-pride-draws-record-crowd-not-everyones-happy-video/ .
InfoView thread info, including edit history
TrashPut this thread in your Trash Can (My DU » Trash Can)
BookmarkAdd this thread to your Bookmarks (My DU » Bookmarks)
2 replies, 1092 views
ShareGet links to this post and/or share on social media
AlertAlert this post for a rule violation
PowersThere are no powers you can use on this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
ReplyReply to this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
Rec (1)
ReplyReply to this post
2 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Austin Gay Pride Draws Record Crowd, But Not Everyone’s Happy (Original Post)
TexasTowelie
Sep 2016
OP
msongs
(67,413 posts)1. one primary purpose of many of these events is sell alcohol. alcohol peddlers are big
sponsors of gay pride events. the one in honolulu this year is now in a confined space for the purpose of controlling the crowd to sell alcohol. It used to be in an open space in a fine park right by the beach but the crowd could not be corraled and they were not allowed to push profit making drinking.
GoDawgs
(267 posts)2. Atlanta Pride is still free. Come enjoy Piedmont park and surrounding area!
Vendors, of course, still charge, but they are organizations vending for fundraising. Most of them good orgs. Big beer cups! Parades, music, cabarets, sports. Everybody has a good time.
October 8-9 2016