Editor’s Note: This post, as you will see, is in two sections. The first deals with highlights of the forthcoming Pride Festival and the second is a brief editorial commentary.

The parade entries, the diversified spectrum of nonprofit and corporate sponsors and booth participants, and a solid slate of entertainers suggest that this year’s Pride Festival, which is expected to bring more than 25,000 people at its peak on Sunday, will be the largest event ever staged by the LGBT community in Utah.

And, marking its fifth year as the principal sponsor and coordinator of the activities, the Utah Pride Center has assembled this weekend a slate of events and participants that reflects the widespread desire not just among the LGBT community but also of all other groups that Utah affirms its commitment to affirmation and positive engagement for all individuals. The forecast also is promising for Sunday’s keynote parade and festival: partly cloudy skies with seasonable temperatures. The center of the festival will be on the grounds of the city and county building at Washington Square and along 200 East between 400 South and 500 South.

Among the highlights:

* A grand marshal reception June 6 at 6 p.m. in Trofi at the downtown Hilton. SLC Mayor Ralph Becker and freshman city council members Luke Garrott and J. T. Martin will be honored as grand marshals for the June 8 parade. The trio is being honored for it solid support on a variety of human rights issues, including the most recently established mutual commitment registry. The reception also will be held in honor of Stan Penfold, executive director of the Utah AIDS Foundation, who is this year’s recipient of the Dr. Kristen Ries Community Service Award, and Rep. Carol Spackman Moss, who is receiving the Pete Suazo Political Action Award. In addition to leading his organization’s work surrounding HIV/AIDS prevention and education, Penfold trains several nonprofit agencies and staff in outcomes-based evaluation methods and is a professional mentor with the Fieldstone Foundation. Moss successfully led the legislative drive to pass a comprehensive bill dealing with bullying and hazing in Utah schools, which was signed earlier this spring by Gov. Jon Huntsman, Jr. Tickets are $75.

* The annual ‘Dyke March’ on Saturday, June 7, beginning at 4 p.m. at City Creek Park (near intersection of State Street and North Temple. Started in 2002, the march has become an integral part of the festival. Expected to draw several hundred marchers, the event is organized by sWerve, a lesbian-focused social and civic service affiliate group of the Utah Pride Center.

* Ten-time Grammy nominee Meshell Ndegeocello, singer, songwriter, and bass player, will perform Saturday, June 7, at 8:30 pm in Washington Square. Ndegeocello has crossed many musical boundaries, working smoothly in the genres of rock, jazz, funk, soul and other idioms. This is her second Utah appearance, last performing in 2006 for the Gallivan Center’s summer twilight concert series. Tickets are $10. Festival gates open at 4 p.m.

* The parade at 10 a.m. in downtown, starting near the intersection of 300 South and State Street, moving north to South Temple, and southward along 200 East to the festival grounds. There are more than 65 entries, including several new participants such as the Save Our Canyons environmental group, No More Homeless Pets, Veterans’ Peace Coalition, and a group of cheerleaders called “Pom Poms Not Bombs Bombs.” As this is an election year, expect to see a wide range of candidates, and other public officials include Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon.

* Festival gates open at 10 a.m. with an admission of $5. Entertainers include Kinsey Sicks (yes, it’s a play on the famous designation for a person who is “completely” homosexual determined by the researcher’s scale of sexual orientation), a San Francisco-based group described as “America’s favorite dragapella beautyshop quartet.” Beyond the obvious entertainment value of a quartet in drag, the ensemble has been widely acknowledged for first-rate a cappella singing and sharply written satire. The group performs on the festival’s main stage at 5 p.m.

There are more than 300 volunteers scheduled to work. Utah AIDS Foundation will, once again, offer confidential on-site testing for HIV. For more information and tickets and volunteer service, visit here.

EDITORIAL

The annual Pride Festival reflects a simple statement of fact: Perhaps more so than in other cities similar in size, Salt Lake City’s gay community is widely visible and extensively involved in plenty of high-profile projects. The Utah AIDS Foundation, Equality Utah, and Q SaltLake are among the most widely recognized entities in the gay community. And, there are more than 200 community groups involved in everything from the performing arts and sports to politics and academic queer studies, much to the chagrin of obviously bigoted state legislators and others who have yet to acknowledge the transformative political, social, and cultural climate that has blossomed across the country.

In some respects, the Utah Pride Center has done an exemplary job raising the political visibility of the LGBT community. No doubt, it is a welcome safe haven especially for the youth who have been disenfranchised by their families and communities in the closeted parts of Utah. However, I strongly believe — that in the absence of a fully developed capital campaign integrative in marketing, public relations, and fundraising — the time has come for the Center to cede responsibility at least, in part, to an independent group that would plan and carry out the annual Pride Festival.

This is the fifth year the center has taken on the responsibility of the festival. And, it has yet to break even. This year hardly seems promising. The cost per person of carrying out this festival amounts to roughly $15.90 per person. Revenue from admission certainly doesn’t even begin to cover the costs. So, the focus is on center memberships and on generous support from individuals, foundations, and corporations. And, the LGBT community in Utah has benefited handsomely from several prominent “angels” who have unflinchingly reached into their deep pockets to give the community its rightful presence. However, in a climate where normalcy in the political and social sphere is giving rise to more practically-rooted concerns of the legal and economic rights of LGBT individuals, the attention must now be directed to developing a long-term capital campaign focused on the diversified opportunities of a broader, enlightened community and which avoids the risk of donor fatigue.

Simply, the center, I believe, cannot do both simultaneously. Planning for a successful Pride Festival begins as soon as the stage goes dark on the final performance of late Sunday afternoon. The center has experimented with three days of activities on the festival grounds which hardly benefited the coffers. The Saturday evening concert has yet to draw appreciable numbers that justify financially such an event. The practicalities of bringing in A-list entertainment for a Pride-friendly crowd suggest that commitments be made at least one year, if not 18 or 24 months in advance. With no disrespect intended for this year’s scheduled artist whose musical credentials are impeccable, the featured performer at such an event should be a “hot” current performer or DJ with potentially strong draw. Only then will the Saturday concert ever be a viable revenue generator, especially if the usual concert amenities are offered along with the performance.

The festival’s success often is contingent upon the weather. Some years, blazing sunshine and temperatures in the 90s have brought thirsty crowds anxious to share in the communal joyfulness of the festival. And, at least twice in the current decade, the weather has been damp and unseasonably chilly. I can recall a Saturday festival evening — absolutely dismal weather for early June — where the numbers could be readily tabulated by visual observation alone. The long-term viability cannot be predicated alone on “sunshine” community supporters.

The time is opportune to revisit the issue of who holds responsibility for organizing this festival. An independent committee comprising duly appointed representatives from the major LGBT constituency groups would be wise with a Utah Pride Center official serving as ex officio chair. This group’s sole responsibility would be the festival planning and administration.

And, then, the Utah Pride Center could turn its attention to the essentials of a long-term capital campaign that ensures the viability not only of the center but also of the services critically important to groups affected by changing demographics. That includes young people who are coming publicly to terms with their sexuality at a much earlier age than before and to the steadily expanding segment of “gay and gray” individuals who are encountering new legal, financial, and social decisions that necessitate professional advice and counsel.

Planning for such a campaign also will require a great bit of market intelligence gathering. This effort comprises three essential steps to good community market intelligence, as advanced by a San Francisco group that specializes in community market campaign planning: (1) Collect and analyze as much data as you can about your prospective markets, and learn about the sensitivities, preferences, motivations, beliefs, and attitudes; (2) Merely showing up in the community or at events or meetings hardly matters anymore. Do a positioning framework to determine how and where your product or service fits into an intensely competitive market and use those findings to craft your message about the value you bring to the community, and (3) Draft plans based on the intelligence gathered in the first two steps. Launching a campaign without the foresight of surveys or focus groups will be disastrous.

The time has come for an omnibus program of this sort. This is where the future efforts of the Utah Pride Center should be directed.