Maybe it was a push to make it more "family friendly" by what the pride committee sprang out of their heads this year or maybe it was to make the pride parade less stressful. I am not sure what they were thinking because the parade seemed far less people this year than ever before in the five years I have attended the Oklahoma City parade thanks to the decision they made to move it to Friday night.
Let me tell you a few things that I noticed over the weekend. The festival held over at the park on Classen blvd. was so boring we had to leave after five minutes. There was no art to browse over. There were hardly any booths manned after 6pm when it was open until 10pm. Talk about a watered-down event. They should have spent more time recruiting more of an artsy setting than trying to change traditional dates.
Instead of enjoying the festival we ended up just eating a nice dinner over at Iron Star that used to be Leslie’s Painted Dessert. Amazing Urban BBQ and cavatappi mac and cheese with 4 cheeses by the way! So maybe it was meant to be.
The traditional Angles T-Dance that everyone enjoys was not on Sunday because the Parade had been moved. Although some poured into Angles on Friday night to have a drink there was only a few bartenders and single lines at each bar. No one was hardly on the dancefloor because everyone was waiting for a drink.
Then we go down to the Copa later on in the night and there was a line inside the Habana Inn. The music was so low we could barely hear it. We asked the DJ to turn up the music louder he came out there and agreed with us. He seemed to be an amateur DJ so he probably was not aware that it still was not loud enough to get people on the dance floor like you normally see.
OKC Pride is so much better when they have it on Sundays. There were more parties to attend, better club nights, and the festival is funner when more people are there at once. If there is no one manning a booth at the festival there is just no reason to go. If you want to stretch it out to all hours of the day and night then you need to book a major act like Deborah Cox or Kristine W to appear that way the local bands will get more of an audience.
If pride is moved to Saturdays it will take away from the clubs revenue on the other nights. I think its always good to have parades on Sunday to make it one extra day the clubs will be busy that way we have Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to drink, dance, and be happy.
OKC Pride needs to take notes from Tulsa pride. OKC really had no major sponsors or exciting floats missing the creative ones from the past it seemed bare and more like a bicycle/motorcycle/charity walk instead of a parade. Tulsa really had it going on this year from what everyone is telling me and I would go but its the same weekend as Gay Days and I aint’ missing that! I heard some of the companies that wanted to take part in the parade could not do so because the date was moved up to Friday. Starting at 7pm is just a few hours from rush hour on Friday so people from smaller towns may have had a problem getting into the city in time. The streets were not lined up as far back as years past it was much easier to park this year than in 2007. 
The legendary Habana Inn was booked up months in advance for the Friday night which was a positive thing for 2008. In 2007, there were rooms available on the Sunday night of the Parade. But most people probably just left town after the parade on Sundays instead of spending the night. The Habana pool parties were fun on Saturday and Sunday which make a great alternative to the festival.
I will say the drag queens that performed outside the Park bar (Miss Wreck Room) did a great job before and after the pride parade on Friday night. That was absolutely the best part of the Parade. Let’s hope this is moved for 2009 back to Sunday and the 22nd year is flawless.
Leave a Reply