Riverside Pride set for Inland Empire in SoCal

By Barbara Brooks
InstantPride.com

Pride is coming back to a one Southern California community with the Riverside Pride Festival, which promises everything from art and entertainment to a wedding chapel complete with ministers.

Headliner Ru Paul and comedian Ant are the main-stage headliners for the event, slated for September 13 at White Park in downtown Riverside.

Riverside Mayor Ronald Loveridge is scheduled to kick things off with a welcome speech.

According to festival organizer David St Pierre, who also owns the Menagerie bar downtown, there have been different levels of pride events in the Inland Empire over the past two decades — but none like this. “There has been a lot of effort put into organizing this event and doing it right,” he said. The Jeffrey Owens Community Center is also a festival organizer.

With California’s recent legalization of gay marriage, the entertainment will compete with a chapel where same-sex couples can get married. “Weddings or commitment ceremonies will be held every 15 minutes for about eight hours,” St Pierre said.

As long as couples have their paperwork ready, they can book ceremonies at Pride on a first-come basis. There will be someone there to officiate — “Two ordained ministers, Benita Ramsey (of the Unity Fellowship Church of Riverside) and Glen Abercrombie,” St Pierre said.

White Park will be divided into sections in an attempt to appeal to a wide range of Riversiders. A Teen Zone, sponsored by the Rainbow Pride Youth Alliance, will offer pool tables and video games for teens 14 to 19. A dance tent will be sponsored by internet-based PNN Radio, which will broadcast live. There will also be an Artist Village. Food and vendor booths, along with a full bar, will be within the gates of White Park.

Additional entertainment includes comic Sheena Metal and music from Jimmy Demar, Niki Haris, Diego Diego, RoRo, Diva Denise Carter and Olga Tapia.

St Pierre said the biggest challenge is finding sponsors to offset the cost of the event, which he estimates at $50,000. “We have had great in-kind donations. We have a professional stage that cost $25,000, and we got it for about half the price.”

The Riverside Pride Festival will be 10 a.m.- 9 p.m. Sept. 13 in White Park, at Market Street and University Avenue. Tickets are $10 advance, $15 at the event. For more information, go to www.jocc.org.

Click here to read more about this 2008 Riverside Pride event happening in Southern California.

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