The PRIDE festival will be coming to the South Bay this weekend.
The South Bay Alliance’s annual South Bay Pride Art &Musical Festival is from noon to 8 p.m. on Sept.8 at Bayside Park in Chula Vista, 999 Bayside Parkway.
South Bay Alliance is a lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender advocacy groups that annual hosts South Bay Pride.
The event —with a suggested $10 donation—features main acts Rupaul’s Ongina with the Divas and Ingenue. Other entertainment acts include Regina Styles MC, Unsteady, The Social Animal, Rhythm Tuner and The Drag Kings.
Dae Elliot, chair of the South Bay Alliance, said after a brief experiment last year of having performers on multiple stages, performers will go back to performing on a main stage.
“We had some people come back saying that they didn’t like the multiple stages, saying that they wanted it more centralized so we are just putting everything on the main stage,” she said. “We tried to expand to multiple stages and everyone just felt that it spread out too much.
Elliot said South Bay Alliance had to step up their fundraising efforts this year in order to make the event possible because the Port of San Diego had cut funding for the art and music festival. Elliot said usually the Port contributes about $7,500, but this year they only gave $5,000.
In total, Elliot said South Bay Alliance raised $28,000 for the operations of South Bay Pride. She said in years past it cost about $27,000 to put on the event and last year the group broke even.
Elliot said South Bay Pride is a day where the LGBT community can celebrate who they are.
“A lot of people just go to Hillcrest to be themselves, they can’t be themselves at home. And when they find that we have a Pride it’s really encouraging that their home, their neighborhood has embraced them,” she said.
Elliot said there will be plenty of food at South Bay Pride along with beer, wine and sangria.
Plenty of activities for children including a Children’s Garden which will have face painting and other activities. Children will also get to jump in bounce houses and inflatables.
On Thursday, Sept.6, the South Bay Alliance will host a South Bay Pride Business Mixer… a kick off for South Bay Pride Art & Musical Festival from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Elliot said the business community and local elected officials are expected to attend the kick off.
