Organizers don’t expect decision to fence in Lee Park, ban outside alcohol at event following parade to have major impact on attendance
Michael Doughman
JOHN WRIGHT | Online Editor
wright@dallasvoice.com
When the Dallas Tavern Guild announced a $5 admission charge for Sunday’s Festival in Lee Park earlier this year, it led to some major backlash on social media networks and in the comments section of DallasVoice.com.
But Michael Doughman, executive director of the Tavern Guild, said the backlash hasn’t translated into significantly reduced interest in the event from vendors and nonprofit groups.
As of this week, only five fewer organizations had signed up for booths at the festival, which takes place before, during and after the Alan Ross Texas Freedom Parade.
“We don’t consider that a loss in attendance at the park at all,” Doughman said. “We do have some nonprofit organizations that opted not to be in the park this year, and that’s certainly their choice. We don’t think that it’s going to harm anything.
“We have over 70 vendors already paid in the park,” Doughman added. “If that were the general consensus, a whole lot of those people wouldn’t be coming either, but they are.”
The Tavern Guild, which puts on both the parade and festival, chose to fence in the park this year to be proactive since the city plans to require it in the future, Doughman said.
The fencing will also allow the Tavern Guild to prevent people from bringing in their own alcohol, which Doughman says has become a problem.
“We’ve had a really, really rapid rise in the number of people [getting] highly intoxicated,” he said.
Those who want to consume alcohol at the festival this year will have to purchase it from vendors — who’ll be selling plastic bottles of beer at the same prices as before, $3 for domestics and $4 for imports, Doughman said.
Lori Chance, special events manager for the city of Dallas, confirmed that her office likely would have required the Pride festival to be fenced beginning in 2012.
“Typically anytime alcohol is involved, we require fencing, and that’s so they can control the ingress and egress,” Chance said. “We’re headed in that direction because of the alcohol. Their choice is to fence the entire park … or to make a secluded area for alcohol, and the alcohol has to stay in that area only.”
While the decision to fence in the festival was made in anticipation of the city requirement, Doughman said the $5 admission charge is designed to raise money for the event’s beneficiaries.
The Tavern Guild historically has donated a combined $20,000 to $25,000 to three or four beneficiaries. But in recent years, there’s been only $7,500 or $8,000 left over for one beneficiary — Youth First Texas.
This year, the Tavern Guild has added AIDS Arms, AIDS Services of Dallas, AIDS Interfaith Network and Legacy Counseling Center.
“If you begrudge $5 to be divided among four of the AIDS services and YFT, then that’s not the spirit of Pride to begin with,” Doughman said. “It’s always been about raising money for the community.”
The Festival in Lee Park normally attracts about 7,500 people, and organizers are predicting a decline in attendance of up to 1,500 this year due to the admission charge, Doughman said. But even if attendance is as low as 5,000, it will still mean an extra $25,000 for the beneficiaries. In addition, Doughman said 25 percent of net proceeds from alcohol sales will go to the Texas Gay Rodeo Association, while 75 percent will go back to the Tavern Guild and its beneficiaries.
Still, not everyone is willing to pay the price.
Rob Schlein, president of Log Cabin Republicans Dallas, said his group is among those that won’t have a booth at the festival this year because of the admission charge, which he called “a stupid business decision.”
Schlein said Log Cabin decided it wouldn’t be worth the $150 registration fee because of reduced attendance.
He said Log Cabin, which is also skipping the parade this year, used “free market principles” to make a statement.
“To have to pay for it just doesn’t seem to be in the spirit of gay Pride weekend,” Schlein said. “This is a tax on the gay Pride parade.”
Festival in Lee Park
Sunday, Sept. 18.
Park opens at 11 a.m.
No coolers, glass containers or alcohol can be brought into the park. There will be an exception for vendors who want to bring in coolers for volunteers. Admission is $5. ATM machines will be situated near festival entrances for those who don’t have cash. More info at www.DallasPrideParade.com.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition September 16, 2011.
Why skip the Parade? I understand the Festival . But the Parade is FREE, Be proud of your stance n choice etc. I do not agree with you all on the Perry thing tho. Why would you vote for someone like that who is such a hater for we Gay people.
Oh and TAX on the GayPride parade? what?
The parade is not free for the participants though. Isn’t the cost up to about $700 – $1000?
No, Brian. Actually the fee was $150 for a non-profit and $200 for local businesses.
I was referring to the free as to the public part. They said they were not going to the festival because there was a entrance fee of $5 for the public.
Isn’t this the perfect Republican platform? Private money being used to pay for private events instead of burdening the taxpayers of Dallas? Log Cabin needs its own reality show for both its faces.
People need to think about all the friends & family that suffer with HIV & AIDS. $5 I think is a small price to pay to go toward helping all those fine people. If I was able to go I would gladly pay the small amount. Its just one less beer.
I guess the gay bar owners in Dallas still aren’t making enough profits on their hideously overpriced drinks yet. What’s next, a parade attendance fee?
I don’t understand how Dallas STILL has such a low turn out for Pride, we should be in the hundreds of thousands of people. I recently attended Pride in Indianapolis, they had over 100,000 in attendance, I also attended Denver….almost 500,000….Dallas is a major city, I think we need better organizers to promote Pride…
So those of us who have AIDS should have to pay $5 too? I guess we’re supposed to be able to afford it also?
@Monroe, idea would be the Aids center etc, to have voucher to give to get in free. Thats an idea for next year u can suggests to the center you go to.
.The$$ for drinks if you look at other clubs in the dfw area, the Gay ones are WAY cheaper over all.
@Better Organization…. The Indianapolis attendance was just over 70,000
Denvers was 250,000 were did u get your #’s?
Last years was 30,000-35,000 for Dallas
I did google/bing search for the attendance
@ Mike the only reason I am responding to you is because you are missing my point. Regardless of who’s numbers are right…Dallas numbers are still lower than Dallas. With the DFW area bigger than both those cities, our numbers are lower. That is unacceptable.
I dont understand why the Tavern Guild isnt able to create a weekend long pride festivity with crowd pleasing entertainment from all spectrums like other large cities provide to their citizens for pride. Paying $5 to hang out in the park for 2.5 hours after the parade is lame. They need to make pride weekend last longer and have the festival saturday and sunday with way better entertainment. Lady Gaga performs at Roundup on a random night, Cazwell and many other perfomers show up to S4. Why can’t they come pride weekend? Houston can bring in a crowd of approx 200-250k people for pride we get 40,000 at the parade and 5,000 at the festival. Really? Thats the best we can do? I think Dallas expects and deserves way better than what we get for pride weekend!
LOL! Since when has the spirit of the parade been about charity? The spirit is about pride. The charity part has been something that has been added later. Its funny that the big rich organizations have taken the stance on how the little people shouldn’t begrude having more money taken from their pocket, after being gouged by every vender on the street selling water or trinkets. The commerciality of the parade had gone beyond a few paltry dollars. I’ll be staying home even though I live down the street from the crossroads.
What the hell were the organizers thinking by placing the Port-a-Potties inside the fenced area at Lee Park? With crowds estimated at well over 40K, just where were they supposed to go? Every year we hang out at the end of the parade route and this year one of our party needed to use the “facilities” due to illness. So imagine our disgust when he came back to say that he was charged $5 just to use the port-a-potty! That is beyond unacceptable, that is rude and offensive that the “organizers” felt the need to charge for access to use them!!!