First-ever Pride Festival

Merriment will ensue this weekend for Grays Harbor LGBTQ community with the first-ever Pride Festival sponsored by the newly formed, as of June 2014, Out &Proud Grays Harbor Coalition. The festivities will start at 11 a.m. along 8th and Levee streets in Hoquiam.

Expect free carnival-style games as well as bouncey houses for kids. There will be live music including Full Moon Radio, Hot Cops, Driftin’ Harbour Rats and Kimya Dawson. Many food vendors, including the Grays Harbor Burger Wagon serving their infamous onion burgers, and the 8th Street Ale House will have a beer garden and BBQ for adults.

In addition to food and drink, more than 45 vendors are signed up and will offer unique items such as jewelry and art.

According to Sarah Gillies-Alvarez, one of the event’s organizers, many organizations from churches to medicinal marijuana as well as other non-profits and commu- nity resources will have booths with information about their organizations.

The downtown festival will continue until 4 p.m, but the festivities will not end at that time.

At 7:30 p.m. the event will regain momentum, this time at the 7th St. Theatre, where you will be treated to a drag show for all ages featuring per- formers such as Ceasar Hart, Adam Cooper, Jessah Kiah, Mr. Gay Washington and many more.GH Wine Sellars will be in the lobby serving specialty drinks during the evening to the 21+ crowd during the event and the theatre will be selling concessions. Bring your wallet; there will be many opportunities to support a good cause.

After the drag show, there will be a short intermission before the showing of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” at 10 p.m. Please refrain from bringing squirt guns, hot dogs, buttered toast, rice, confetti, etc. to the theatre; if you would like to interact with the film, now will be a great time to pull out your wallet as Out &Proud will be selling audience participation bags for $5 in the lobby. This is a small price to pay for a really good time. Both events are family friendly and free to attend, but O&P would gladly accept your donation.

Que wallet.

If you would like VIP seating, O&P is offering the front row for $10 per seat.

To fund the expense of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” Gillies-Alvarez created a gofundme campaign hoping to raise $1,150 as of Wednesday the campaign had collected a little more than half. The show will go on and you can continue to donate to the campaign throughout the weekend.

All of the proceeds from the event will go toward the non-profit organization, Out &Proud Grays Harbor Coalition.

Grays Harbor Pride Festival and Out &Proud Grays Harbor Coalition, a nonprofit organization, are dedicated to advocacy and education to create a just society free of discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. All proceeds from these events will help us to create a community where everyone can live freely without fear of violence, where identities, relationships and families are respected, in creating a safe Harbor for all humans to express themselves free of judgment. For more information, visit the website at www.opghc.org.