Last summer’s street food festival on 11th Ave paved the way for a new Pride event (Image: CHS)

Capitol Hill will be even more Pride-full this June. Organizers of the Seattle PrideFest events have announced plans to add *another* street festival on Capitol Hill on Seattle Pride weekend.

“There are so many people on Capitol Hill, there’s more than enough to go around for everyone,” PrideFest producer Egan Orion told CHS before unveiling the plans publicly Wednesday at the City of Seattle’s monthly special events meeting.

The Capitol Hill Pride Festival will return on Broadway in 2014 (Image: CHS)

Orion’s company inaugurated the PrideFest Family Day in Cal Anderson Park in 2013 to create a kid-friendly celebration in the midst of the weekend’s festivities. The new PrideFest Capitol Hill Street Festival will accompany Family Day in Cal Anderson by filling the adjacent 11th Ave with food trucks, a beer garden and a performance stage. There will, of course, be a DJ.

“We wanted to have something that would make Pike/Pine a little more festive on the day,” Orion said. “We also wanted it to be free.”

The 4 PM til dark street festival will join the regular bar and club beer gardens that blossom throughout Pike/Pine during Pride including Wildrose’s annual party. Meanwhile on Broadway, the 21st annual Dyke March will continue. Capitol Hill Pride Festival will return for another year with stages, pet contests and vendors. The Broadway Pride street festival, organized by former Broadway business owner Charlette LeFevre, has grown into a big part of Capitol Hill’s annual LGBTQ celebration but closing Broadway won’t be an option once work on extending the First Hill streetcar toward Volunteer Park begins.

Sack races at the 2013 Seattle Pride Picnic (Image: CHS)

The new street festival is another in a line of additions to Pride weekend on Capitol Hill years after the big parade moved downtown. The Seattle Pride Picnic in Volunteer Park celebrated its fourth year in 2013 while a new Trans* Pride event marched to Cal Anderson for the first time.

Now Cal Anderson’s 2014 part in Pride is lining up to be even busier. While it wasn’t designed for the purpose, 11th Ave appears to be taking shape as a de facto festival street for the area. Orion said the success of last summer’s Street Food Festival Capitol Hill debut on the street opened his eyes to 11th Ave’s potential while also helping organizers to better plan being good neighbors to residents in the area.

“For me, attending the Seattle Street Food Festival, seeing the reaction, it clicked that a Pride event would also work,” he said.

You can learn more and watch for updates at seattlepridefest.org.