Every year the entertainment is announced for PrideFest, and every year it’s the same reaction.
It starts with: “What?”
Then it’s: “Who?”
Followed by: “Really?”
And then tens of thousands of people show up in Civic Center for the event and dance the afternoon away.
Take this year’s lineup. The big Saturday headliner is Fab Morvan, who will be flying in all the way from Europe to entertain the masses. He’s the former lead singer of ’80s pop group Milli Vanilli.
What? Who?
Really. The main stage will also feature dance music diva Kristine W, the Freedom Swing Band, the performance collective known as La Galla Queer, a “Fight For Your Right” rally and lots and lots of drag with the big name being Derrick Berry, known for doing a dead-on Britney Spears.
There is actually more logic than madness to the art of booking a stage that has, in previous years, also brought Tiffany, Debbie Gibson, Martha Wash and Thelma Houston to town. The event has a decent record of success — especially if success equals people coming back for more year after year. PrideFest can draw 300,000 people downtown, and on days when the weather cooperates, they pack the amphitheater where the music plays.
Clearly, PrideFest could afford bigger names. The event raises tens of thousands of dollars for the non-profit LGBT cultural hub called The Center each year.
But curating the lineup is less about cash and more about matching the acts to the extremely broad and constantly changing sensibilities of gay culture, keeping things family-friendly and tapping a whole lot of nostalgia. Think of it as a mix of camp, politics and community.
“It really is about inclusion,” said DeMarcio Slaughter, who puts it together.
That and the need to make the stage the center of the party.
“It could be 90 degrees,” he said. “But no one is going to stand there and not move.” Slaughter said he gets suggestions all year for acts to book.
“People stop me in restaurants or at the airport and say, ‘Can you get so and so?’ or ‘You need to YouTube this clip,’ ” he said. “I have a file and I choose from local and national acts, and, of course, I have my own favorites.”
Like Milli Vanilli?
“I remember being obsessed with that at the time,” he said. “The look and the braids.”
So he goes on instinct, omitting anything that might be too off-color for kids. It’s a broad enough set of standards to allow the annual “Dogs in Drag” spectacle, a swimwear fashion show and Kristine W, who has had a long string of hits on Billboard’s dance charts. “You don’t see these acts at other events downtown,” Slaughter said.
The Center Stage runs from around 11 a.m. to after 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. At the same time, there is a smaller Outwest Country Stage with music and square dancing and a Carnival Latino stage heavy with DJs.
PRIDEFEST DENVER. The two-day festival centered around gay and lesbian culture takes place in Civic Center from 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday. The CoorsLight Pride- Fest parade steps off from Cheesman Park at 9:30 a.m. Sunday and travels down East Colfax Avenue into Civic Center. Related activities take place throughout the weekend. More info: 303-733-7743 or glbtcolorado.org
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Ray Mark Rinaldi is an Arts reporter at The Denver Post and a regular contributor to Reverb.
