Venue – The Indiana War Memorial Personnel and our Indy Pride Security strongly suggested that we consider moving the Pride Festival to a larger venue since University Park cannot adequately accommodate 45,000 people!   This year’s Pride Festival will be held at the American Legion Mall which is located at North Street between Pennsylvania & Meridian.

Parade Route – The parade will step off at the corner of College and Mass Avenue and proceed down Mass Avenue to Michigan Street.  The parade will turn west onto Michigan Street and proceed on Michigan passing the front of the War Memorial Building then will turn north onto Meridian Street and end at the corner of Meridian and St. Clair Streets.  De-marshalling will take place at this corner.  Floats will line the sides of the park on Pennsylvania and Meridian Street.  Space is still available, to register complete the application form online at www.indyprideinc.org.

Vendors – As of April 20, there are  98 sales and non-profit informational booths and 12 food vendors.  A vendor map will be available after May 1.  Space is still available.  Application forms are online at www.indyprideinc.org.

Entertainment – Taylor Dayne, Blake Lewis (from American Idol) and Nhojj (the gay black male to win and OUT Music Award) will perform at Pride.  Entertainment applications are online for local artists and for drag performers to submit to be considered for this year’s event.

Beverage Tent– This year, Indy Pride will have one LARGE alcohol tent located in the center of North Street between Meridian & Pennsylvania.  Once again, the tent will feature Coors and Absolut!

Picnic – The annual Pride Picnic will be held on Sunday, June 6 at the Pagoda at Garfield Park.  Ruth Hawkins and her committee are working with the Gay Softball Team, the Indy Volleyball group and the Gay Bowling team to have sporting events.  For those who do not like sports, Bingo will be played and there will be entertainment provided by Rock Star Entertainment.

Pride Skate – The annual Pride Skate will be held on Sunday, June 6.   This year’s theme is 2010 Rainbow Roll from 6:30 – 9:00 p.m. – Cover charge is $10.00 which includes skate rental, pizza buffet and soft drinks.  This is a fun-fille, family-friendly roller skating with rockin’ tunes from Talbott Street’s DJ Deanne, the family “Drag Skate” race and more!  Let’s “wheel with pride” and come dressed in rainbow colors!

Community Service – On Monday, June 7, Indy Pride volunteers will be working with Keep Indianapolis Beautiful as part of our  Day of Community Service.

Pride of Indy Band Concert will be held on Tuesday, June 8 at 7:00 p.m. on the lawn at the Firehouse Museum. This is a free concert.

Educational Seminar – Watch for details about our Pride Educational Seminar which will be held on Wednesday, June 9 at 7:00 p.m.

Pride Bag Ladies – The Bag Ladies will kick off their 30^th Anniversary Year with “Three Decades of Drag” on Thursday, June 10 at 9:00 p.m. at Gregs.

Girl Pride – Talbott Street will be hosting “Girl Pride” at Talbott Street on Thursday, June 10 – watch for details!

IYG – A NIGHT TO SHARE – On Friday, June 11, IYG will host their annual “A Night To Share” event.  More information is available on the IYG website:  www.indianayouthgroup.org.

Volunteers – Pam Powell, our Volunteer Coordinator, is actively recruiting volunteers for events!

For the most up to date information, please check out http://www.indyprideinc.org/

The biggest news has to be the move to a new venue for the Festival on the 12th.  While we are still in same general area, instead of being just south of the War Memorial in University Park, we are moving one block north of the memorial to the American Legion Mall.  The mall is flanked by Meridian, St. Clair, Pennsylvania, and North Streets.  Since the venue is moving, this means the parade route will be slightly different, too, but we’ll have new maps available closer to the event.  The main reason for the move was simply the fact that we outgrew University Park.  It was so crowded last year, it was difficult to get around.

Outside of the move, the top story is that multiplatinum diva, Taylor Dayne will be the headliner on the big stage.  Along with Ms. Dayne, American Idol Season Six runner up, Blake Lewis and award winning, out singer Nhojj will be appearing, too.  Nhojj will also kick off the Festival’s events with the National Anthem.  Dayne, Lewis, and Nhojj will be joined throughout the day by the best local and regional acts making this year’s stage the best yet!

Of course, there is still a lot of work to be done.   We’re doing really well on selling vendor spots and the festival, and our sponsorship levels are going up.  We’ll be meeting the first and third Wednesday’s of each month to discuss the progress of the various planning committees, and really, before you know it, June is going to be up on us.

Keep checking back for more information!

Circle City IN Pride News

I’m currently redesigning this portion of the website, but you can get the basic schedule and information on volunteering.  We NEED your help!  If you’re interested in booth space or being in the parade, both of those applications are still available.  http://www.indyprideinc.org/circlecityinpride/

Upcoming Events

Sunday, April 19

2nd Annual Pride Bag Lady County/Gospel Brunch
Place:  Talbott Street
Time:  12:00 Noon
Catering:  Hoaglin Fine Catering
Tickets:  $20.00 in advance; $25.00 at the Door (if available)
Proceeds:  Benefit the Damien Center

Monday, April 20

Spotlight – One Night, One State, One Reason
Place:  Clowes Hall
Time:  7:30 p.m. http://indianaaidsfund.org/spotlight.html

Thursday, April 30

Dining Out For Life
Location:  Various Restaurants in Indy
Proceeds Benefit the Damien Center! http://www.damien.org/

Some Important Updates:

Indy Pride Community Calendar: The calendar has been updated through October 31st of this year.  If you see anything missing, please shoot me an at webmaster@indyprideinc.com.

Circle City IN Pride Committees:  Committees are currently forming and hard at work on organizing Circle City IN Pride 2009.  As you can imagine, it is a herculean effort getting this off the ground, and we need all the help we can get to make this one even better than last years.  Be sure to check out the list of committees to see which one is the best fit for you!

Those are the biggest, but there are also additions on the Board, Pictures, and Upcoming Events (including Laugh Out Loud) pages.  So, be sure to check those out, too.

Upcoming Events:

January 10th – IndySlugger’s Benefit at Greg’s – Come out and support the IndySluggers softball team as they raise money to travel to their first tournament of the year in sunny Tampa, FL. There will be a beer bar and 50/50 raffle.

January 14th – Indy Pride Board of Directors Meeting

January 15th – Indy Pride Membership Mixer at Agio.  Free Appetizers!  Door Prizes! Everyone is welcome!

My New Years resolution is to update this blog more often, and we’ll se how far that goes.

Nick,
Webmaster & Indy Pride Board Member

Along with the Bag Ladies as an organization, this is one of the longest running charity events for HIV/AIDS in the country, and every year it becomes bigger and better.  This year there will be three buses worth of people all participating to raise money for the Gregory Powers DEFA Fund, and you should check the Indy Pride website next week for pictures.

If you would like to follow the buses or meet up with us at one of our stops, here is the itinerary (download it here):