Augusta Pride 2012 changes and expands format in its third year
by Valerie Emerick
Augusta Pride kicks off its third annual festival tonight with the Pride President’s Soiree at the Marion Hatcher Center in downtown Augusta. Didn’t get your invitation or VIP pass yet? Don’t worry — this year the festival has expanded to include many events over the course of the weekend so there will be plenty of chances to participate.
“The parade and festival will mostly stay the same,” explains this year’s Augusta Pride President, Travis Jenkins, “but we have expanded on events around Pride. We’ve got events Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, so the festival won’t be much of a change, but we’ve got a much larger event lineup surrounding the festival.”
In addition to the expanded event schedule, “We also got a grant from the Augusta Convention and Visitors Bureau for out of city advertising,” says Jenkins, “so we’ve promoted ourselves a lot outside of town through this grant… we’re hoping to expand on the festival… which hopefully will also increase Augusta’s economic impact, because it will be more non-locals booking hotel rooms and flights, and going out to eat… stuff like that.” He later adds, “This will be the first time that we’ve had major out of city advertising. We’re interested to see the turnout — so one other thing we’re doing this year is we’re going to have a ‘Get Counted’ booth where we’ll be collecting zip codes just to see how far away people have traveled to be here… to see the impact. So as incentive, we’ll be holding several raffles throughout the day for everyone who stops by to get counted. We’ll be doing $100 raffles, probably $100 Visa gift cards. So instead of winning something you might not want, you’ll be winning something you can use to go out and spend on what you do want — and hopefully it will get spent here on some of our sponsors and advertisers.”
The parade and festival will take place Saturday, starting at 10 a.m.
“We are expecting the parade to grow this year,” says Jenkins. “We kind of noticed the first year that everyone came down to watch, even though it wasn’t that long. The second year, everyone got so excited that they wanted to be in the parade, so it felt like we had almost more people in the parade than we did spectators. So this year, we hope to get more out-of-town visitors and we’re hoping to balance a little bit better.”
The festival will follow the parade and will be held in the Common as in past years, but the entertainment will be a little different this year, according to Jenkins.
“One thing we’re doing different this year is we’ve changed the headliners — the first two years we went with more ‘diva-esque’ kind of headliners, more well renowned performers. This year we’re trying to stay close to the LGBT community and we’ve got some more up and coming gay artists. We’ve got Tom Goss coming in from DC, we’ve got Josh Zuckerman from New York and, of course, our own local band from right here in Augusta, She N She, will be headlining the show. So it’s a little different this year, more LGBT entertainment, and then of course we’ll have a lot more local entertainment playing throughout the day as well.”
Augusta Pride 2012
Friday, June 22
Augusta Pride Cabaret
Club Argos
9 p.m.
Augusta Pride Kick-Off Party with She-N-She
The Filling Station
9 p.m.
Saturday, June 23
Augusta Pride Parade
Broad and Reynolds streets downtown
10 a.m.
Augusta Pride Festival
Augusta Common
11 a.m.-6 p.m.
Augusta Pride Roadhouse
The Filling Station
9 p.m.
Augusta Pride Afterparty
Club Argos
9 p.m.
Sunday, June 24
Augusta Pride Wrap-Up Pool Party
Parliament Resort
10 a.m.
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Augusta Pride kicks off its third annual festival tonight with the Pride President’s Soiree at the Marion Hatcher Center in downtown Augusta. Didn’t get your invitation or VIP pass yet? Don’t worry — this year the festival has expanded to include many events over the course of the weekend so there will be plenty of chances to participate.
“The parade and festival will mostly stay the same,” explains this year’s Augusta Pride President, Travis Jenkins, “but we have expanded on events around Pride. We’ve got events Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, so the festival won’t be much of a change, but we’ve got a much larger event lineup surrounding the festival.”
In addition to the expanded event schedule, “We also got a grant from the Augusta Convention and Visitors Bureau for out of city advertising,” says Jenkins, “so we’ve promoted ourselves a lot outside of town through this grant… we’re hoping to expand on the festival… which hopefully will also increase Augusta’s economic impact, because it will be more non-locals booking hotel rooms and flights, and going out to eat… stuff like that.” He later adds, “This will be the first time that we’ve had major out of city advertising. We’re interested to see the turnout — so one other thing we’re doing this year is we’re going to have a ‘Get Counted’ booth where we’ll be collecting zip codes just to see how far away people have traveled to be here… to see the impact. So as incentive, we’ll be holding several raffles throughout the day for everyone who stops by to get counted. We’ll be doing $100 raffles, probably $100 Visa gift cards. So instead of winning something you might not want, you’ll be winning something you can use to go out and spend on what you do want — and hopefully it will get spent here on some of our sponsors and advertisers.”
The parade and festival will take place Saturday, starting at 10 a.m.
“We are expecting the parade to grow this year,” says Jenkins. “We kind of noticed the first year that everyone came down to watch, even though it wasn’t that long. The second year, everyone got so excited that they wanted to be in the parade, so it felt like we had almost more people in the parade than we did spectators. So this year, we hope to get more out-of-town visitors and we’re hoping to balance a little bit better.”
The festival will follow the parade and will be held in the Common as in past years, but the entertainment will be a little different this year, according to Jenkins.
“One thing we’re doing different this year is we’ve changed the headliners — the first two years we went with more ‘diva-esque’ kind of headliners, more well renowned performers. This year we’re trying to stay close to the LGBT community and we’ve got some more up and coming gay artists. We’ve got Tom Goss coming in from DC, we’ve got Josh Zuckerman from New York and, of course, our own local band from right here in Augusta, She N She, will be headlining the show. So it’s a little different this year, more LGBT entertainment, and then of course we’ll have a lot more local entertainment playing throughout the day as well.”
Augusta Pride 2012
Friday, June 22
Augusta Pride Cabaret
Club Argos
9 p.m.
Augusta Pride Kick-Off Party with She-N-She
The Filling Station
9 p.m.
Saturday, June 23
Augusta Pride Parade
Broad and Reynolds streets downtown
10 a.m.
Augusta Pride Festival
Augusta Common
11 a.m.-6 p.m.
Augusta Pride Roadhouse
The Filling Station
9 p.m.
Augusta Pride Afterparty
Club Argos
9 p.m.
Sunday, June 24
Augusta Pride Wrap-Up Pool Party
Parliament Resort
10 a.m.You Might Also Like:
