We are excited to be participating again in the Oakland Pride Parade + Festival, which this year will take place on September 10. The Parade kicks off at 10:30 am at Broadway & 14th Street in Oakland. The Festival—main entrance at Broadway & 20th Street—opens at 11 am and ends at 7 pm. The San Francisco Bay Times will have a booth at the fest, so we hope to see you soon!
This year there is even more reason to celebrate in the East Bay, due to the recent opening of the Oakland LGBTQ Community Center at 3207 Lakeshore Avenue, entrance on Rand Avenue. We love that area and have had a base nearby for years. See the next few pages for a look inside the impressive new Center. Special thanks to Oakland Councilmember and Bay Times columnist Rebecca Kaplan for supporting both the Center and Oakland Pride, and for helping to make both possible.
Festival Entertainment and Activities
There is no fee to watch the Parade, and just $10 gets you into the all-day Festival. The fee for children under 12 is $5, and this is definitely a family-friendly event. There is a Family & Children’s Garden that offers a safe and fun area for children of all ages and their LGBTQ parents/caregivers. The Garden is hosted by Our Family Coalition, with Kaiser Permanente, Children’s Fairyland, the Oakland Public Library, the Berkeley Public Library, the Museum of Children’s Arts, Six Flags, Abundant Beginnings, the Oakland Fire Department and the Oakland Zoo. There will be jumpy tents, a petting zoo, pony rides, carnival rides, book giveaways and much more.
Featured Stages include the Womyn’s Stage, Community Stage, Latin Stage and Main Stage. Entertainment at the Festival this year includes performers such as Alex Newell, Frenchie Davis, Latrice Royale, Elettrodomestico and Princenation. Grammy Award-nominated Andra Day will be this year’s Main Stage headliner! We will never forget her emotional performance of “Rise Up” on Austin City Limits, which happened at the time of the Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando. Day dedicated her performance to all of the victims and their families.
We will be in good company among the booths for various community organizations and services. Ample food and drink offerings will be available within the Festival grounds too.
History & Goals
East Bay Pride was celebrated in Oakland from 1997 to 2004 and was led by the efforts of former Oakland City Councilmember Danny Wan and the Oakland LGBT Roundtable. “Oakland Out in Oakland” commenced with a celebration of LGBT life in 2005 and 2006. Pride had not taken place in Oakland since that time.
In 2008, Kaplan and others led efforts to re-organize an LGBT Roundtable. Since then, members of the Roundtable and the LGBT community representing all walks of life decided that it was time to resuscitate Oakland Pride for the long term and to advocate for LGBT rights and interests, including the development of the community center. Since the renewal of this effort, Oakland Pride has been busy networking with allies and partners.
Oakland Pride wants to be of assistance in providing a sustainable solution to implement or support needed services for challenges in our community—especially in low-income, multi-cultural elder and young LGBT communities. To do so, the organization collaborates with a host of organizations that help our community and that represent the breadth and depth of LGBT people throughout the East Bay.
Oakland Strong
According to Oakland Pride, Oakland is home to the third largest LGBTQ community in the country, with the highest concentration of lesbian households per capita. It is little wonder then that the Parade and Festival reach around 50,000, and that number is sure to grow this year.
San Francisco-based Priceonomics, which studied data from the U.S. Census, has named Oakland the most diverse city in the country. According to the data-crunching business: “We treated our major ethnic and racial groups like ‘companies,’ and each group’s ‘market share’ was the percentage they comprised of the city’s population.” Oakland’s diversity, including its growing LGBT population, is yet another source of Pride for this great city on the east side of San Francisco Bay.
If you’re reading this in SF or in other parts of the Bay Area, we urge you to make the short journey over to the Parade and Festival. Some street parking is available and there are nearby lots, but the best way to go is via BART. Exit at the 12th Street/City Center or 19th Street Station and you’ll be a short walk away.
After Parties
Several after parties will follow the festivities. The White Horse Bar will present its fabulous “Showgirl Sundays” with DJ Luna. For this and other WHB events: http://whitehorsebar.com/
Valentino is hosting one of the biggest after parties at Bench and Bar. It will feature go go dancers and the best in hip hop, house and top 40 all night long. www.club-bnb.com
And, if you’ve danced yourself out at the Festival, you can check out “No Man’s Land – Women. Queers. Comedy” at the Ivy Room in Albany. Just allow enough time to get there from Oakland, as the doors open at 6 pm, show at 7 pm. http://ivyroom.ticketfly.com/
To become a volunteer for Oakland Pride and/or to learn more about the upcoming Parade and Festival, please visit: http://www.oaklandpride.org/volunteer
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