Sunday kicked off a month of Pride events on Capitol Hill with a clean-up of Cal Anderson Park and nearby sidewalks and streets. Volunteers and the Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce sported gloves and this year’s Clean Sweep “Cap Hill” shirts as they collected cigarette butts and other assorted trash from Broadway and Pike/Pine. It’s time to make room for the glitter.
June brings a steady flow of the events that have grown into traditions on Capitol Hill in recent years — and a few new ones. A full slate of Capitol Hill Pride events is below.
Next on the slate is this coming weekend’s Volunteer Park Pride Festival which has grown into a day of music and fun. This year’s “super secret surprise guest” are the Seattle punkers Tacocat. “Fresh off their Upstream set, Tacocat will be joining the already star-studded lineup that includes Desi Valentine, DoNormaal, Little Bandit, Fruit Juice, Betsy Olson and DJ Toya B,” producers announced Monday. Also Saturday comes a new Pride Hill event with a day on the screen at Northwest Film Forum with PrideFest FilmFest.
Trans Pride 2018 follows on Friday, June 22nd to starts off Seattle’s Pride weekend with a march around Cal Anderson and then a rally and performances in the park. CHS reported here on organizers and the Gender Justice League staring down the challenges and self-funding the event again in 2018.
Saturday the 24th is Capitol Hill’s big Pride day as the city gears up for Sunday’s annual Pride parade downtown. PrideFest Capitol Hill returns with an expanded event that stretches along Broadway from John to Roy, onto E Denny Way and into Cal Anderson Park for Family Pride and Queer Youth Pride. PrideFest producer Egan Orion is also in charge of the Broadway Business Improvement Area this year giving the annual event its best integration yet with the commercial district.
Earlier this year, City Hall turned away the longtime organizers of the Pride weekend Broadway street festival after citing safety issues last summer. But the group returns undaunted in 2018 with plans for a Capitol Hill Pride March & Rally on Broadway, also on Pride Saturday. Broadway will be busy that day — the Seattle Dyke March also returns with its 2018 event on Broadway.
If you missed last year’s Pride on Capitol Hill, here is what it looked like. More 2018 Capitol Hill Pride events from the CHS Calendar, below.
[ai1ec view=”posterboard” events_limit=”10″ ai1ec tag_id=”3957″]
This was