SGN Sep 3, 2021 - Part 1

Close out the summer right with PrideFest on Broadway

by Josephine Baird SGN Contributing Writer

With summer coming to a close, it might seem like all the fun is following suit. But on Capitol Hill this year, summer is going out with a bang: the two-day PrideFest.

The event will be held on September 4 and 5, from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. on Broadway. It is free and open to the public.

Wh ile PrideFest is usually held in June, this year it was moved to Labor Day Weekend due to record-breaking heat and COVID restrictions. As of now, it is set to return to regular June spot next year.

Pr ideFest will include many shows on multiple stages along five blocks of Broadway, changing almost every hour (see the schedule for a list).

Because of the strain that the pandemic has put on the area’s LGBTQIA+ artists, PrideFest will showcase 100% local talent, such as Adra Boo, DJ Riz, BeautyBoiz, DJ Dana Dub, and Anita Spritzer. There will also be a Lantinx showcase as well as a Trans Power Hour featuring local trans and nonbinary speakers and artists. The organizers behind the Dyke March and Pride Asia will also be producing shows.

Planners have also highlighted some artists by making them co-directors, in order to create a more “distributed and diverse group” deciding on talent and speakers for this highly anticipated festival.

Activities

In addition to live music and shows, there will also be a number of activities to participate in:

September 4: Fierce and Feisty Yoga

To start the weekend off right, resident yoga instructor Morgan Zion will host a Fierce and Feisty Yoga session at the W Seattle on September 4 at 11:00 a.m. This will be a chance to detox, return to center, and get in the right mood for the rest of Pride. The cost is $25 per person, including a complimentary mimosa and all taxes and fees.

September 4:

Free Outdoor Movie

PrideFest and Three Dollar Bill Cinema will present a free outdoor movie, Camp, at the Capitol Hill Station Apartments Plaza at Denny and Broadway. Camp is a 2003 musical dramedy about a performing arts summer camp in upstate New York, featuring all the fun of teenage drama—and showtunes! The viewing will start at 8:00 p.m., but people are invited to grab a seat starting at 7:00 p.m. While there is some seating available, prepare to sit on the plaza pavers. For comfort, bring low-backed concert chairs, pillows, and/or blankets. For dinner, there will be lots of delicious options from PrideFest vendors or nearby Broadway restaurants.

September 4:

“Silent Concert Saturday”

On Saturday, from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., at E. Mercer and Broadway, there will be a silent disco presented by The DJ Sessions. This all-day event is a live, outdoor celebration in which participants share their love for electronic/hip-hop music in a community setting. Because it will be held at such an open location, dancing is encouraged.

Anita's Brunch Bonanza W

Seattle

September 5 10:30am | $75

Soak up your Hill hangover with the best brunch bonanza in town before hitting up the festival.

September 5:

Anita’s Brunch Bonanza

A great option for in-between the Saturday and Sunday programing of PrideFest is Anita’s Brunch Bonanza, at the W Seattle, starring Anita Spritzer, the Big Belting B!tch. According to seattlepridefest.org, this will be a great opportunity to “soak up your Hill hangover with the best brunch bonanza in town before hitting up the festival.” The event will be hosted by W Seattle’s Living Room Bar. Seating starts at 10:30 a.m.; the show will start at 11:30 a.m. The cost is $75, including access to the brunch buffet, one mimosa, admission to the show, and all taxes, fees, and a gratuity. A cash bar will also be available throughout the party. Tickets to the bonanza can be bought at www.eventbrite.com/e/anitasbrunch-bonanza-tickets-167690281145.

Of note

As with any celebration, it is not complete without the proper food and libations. There will be lots of options to keep one’s energy up, including food trucks, local restaurants, and beer gardens.

In order to keep the Seattle community safe, PrideFest is requiring unvaccinated guests to wear masks and is strongly encouraging vaccinated guests to mask up. Proof of vaccination will be required in order to enjoy the beer gardens.

Wh ile PrideFest entry is free, this is a great opportunity to help out local nonprofits, arts and craft vendors, local stores, restaurants, bars, etc. Local small businesses are hoping for a much-needed boost after a difficult and slow year and a half.

Br ing your mask, some cash, and a great attitude to this exciting event! After such a challenging season, this is a chance to celebrate life, love, and the ability to come together.

For more information and updates on this year’s PrideFest, go to https://fb.me/ e/2pGnqfeBB.

BEAUTYBOIZ

perform at PrideFest and Supernova

by Daniel Lindsley SGN Contributing Writer

This weekend, as part of Pridefest, audiences at the Center Theater will experience local performance group BeautyBoiz’ latest lineup of LGBTQ and QTPOC performers. The seven include a DJ, drag queens, and dancers, among others, with a different mix of local and Portland artists performing each day.

The show on Saturday, September 4 at 2 p.m. will feature Irene Duboi, Andrew Scott, and Kimberly Michelle Westwood. On Sunday, September 5 at 1 p.m., Flawless Shade and Roulette Delgato will take the stage. DJ Melaninja and Hot Pink Shade will perform on both days.

BeautyBoiz will put on another show at the Supernova nightclub on Sunday evening, from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. Titled Revival, it will feature many of the same performers as will be at PrideFest, with the notable addition of Jazzul Escada from the HBO ballroom show Legendary. BeautyBoiz creative director Kaleb Dameron described stepping into the venue as “being transported to another world.” Tickets cost $15 online, or $20 at the door.

While Dameron wanted to maintain an element of mystery for the upcoming shows, and thus avoided specifics, it is known that Roulette Delgato’s act at PrideFest will involve hip-hop and dancers. Dameron also described Flawless from the Portland-based House of Shade as a “glamazon” and an “absolute joy.” All of them are “regulars” to the group.

Dameron describes the BeautyBoiz as a

“Our audience is our extended family. We all rise together.”

Queer collective, similar to a drag house in many ways, but not limited to drag performances or traditional “sit-and-watch” formats. The group aims for a more immersive experience, intermingling performers with the audience, and often forgoing a host or announcer in favor of flashing LED strips or other signals for more organic transitions between acts.

BeautyBoiz formed from a series of house parties in a tight-knit apartment complex. By 2016 the parties had outgrown the venue, but Dameron says the real turning point for him founding the group was Trump’s election that year. The events that followed — the Pulse nightclub shooting, and what he saw as a gradual loss of Queer spaces overall — only motivated him further. At the time, he was lucky enough to be living in the same building as Wesley Krugé, who was already building the “nonprofit live arts production company” called Forward Flux.

Dameron said his greatest challenge and his greatest triumph, as creative director, has been making BeautyBoiz about more than “throwing parties,” and showing a real engagement with the community, while pushing against an ideology of competition. “Our audience is our extended family,” Dameron told us. “We all rise together.”

Pride

is bubbling with Pride ANITA SPRITZER

by Lindsey Anderson SGN Contributing Writer

If you follow Seattle’s incredible drag scene, you no doubt have heard of Anita Spritzer. Having performed in venues throughout Seattle and Tacoma over the last five years, she has risen to the top and is now adding Pridefest event curator to her long list of accomplishments, having organized “Bubbling with Pride” for the special weekend-long festival.

Spritzer is full of energy, and this is reflected in their stage persona. “I chose my stage name kind of on the fly. I wanted something punny and bubbly and fun. I just wanted something that would show my personality. I love a spritzer, and that’s delicious on a hot summer day, and so am I. So there you go.”

When performing, their biggest inspirations are drawn from their community. “I kind of lead everything I do with a sense of bringing people together and spreading joy and happiness and laughter. I think right now especially is a time when we need all those things,” they said. “My inspiration comes from everyone around me, my fellow drag performers around the world, especially those on the Seattle scene. They inspire me, and that pushes me to be better.” With a love for their community, Spritzer has come up with a unique performance that is sure to bring some of the warmth they feel from their fans and fellow performers back to the streets of Seattle. “So, our vision was creating a show that was just celebratory of all things that Pride

means, whether that be self-expression, diversity, love, happiness, laughter, smiles, all of those things. Community, I think, is a big one as well.

“A nd I think that’s exactly what we did. We have a great lineup, and I’m so excited. The title says it all. We are Bubbling with Pride and we can’t hold it in.”

Spritzer has been working on the coordination of the upcoming show for the last several months. While organizing their first big live event since COVID hit has been difficult at times, what wasn’t was finding performers who were interested in joining in on the celebration. “The good thing about the time that we’re in right now is that everyone is so eager to perform... Casting the show was lickety-split. It really didn’t take too long.”

Bubbling With Pride will have two shows, one on Saturday evening and one on Sunday afternoon (Sept. 4 and 5). Both will be full of fashion, joy, and lots of drag. “I think drag helps empower the LGBTQIA+ community in ways of just sheer expression,” Spritzer said, explaining how, even in a community that celebrates diversity and self-expression, finding ways to feel comfortable in one’s outward expression of gender and sexuality can sometimes still be a challenge.

Their hope is that drag performances can help people learn to “walk through life and express yourself however you want to express yourself, and people will love you for that.” They also believe that drag is an important aspect of the community, because it helps to bring people together. “That’s

If you’ve felt cooped up in the house, a little isolated, and in need of reconnection to Seattle’s amazing LGBTQ commuinity look no further than Anita Spritzer’s Bubbling with Pride event.

definitely harder to do in a global pandemic, but even though we haven’t been able to be together physically, I think drag has still brought so many people together, whether it be virtually or even just comments on social media. That aspect of coming together is what makes drag so powerful.”

Spritzer credits the Seattle drag community for helping them to feel welcome and a part of something, even during the last difficult year. They hope that “Bubbling with Pride” can be seen as their love note to the community that has helped them to feel comfortable about their own self-expression.

“The Seattle drag community [has] some of the most loving, diverse human beings I have ever met. I am just so grateful to be a part of the scene. It is never not exciting. It is always exciting wherever you go, whether it be Kremwerk or Queer Bar or Skylark, or any of those places. It is always so, so exciting. And the scene supports each other, and I think that’s really important too.” PrideFest will be a reflection of the incredible community Spritzer loves so much, an exciting weekend where people can come out and celebrate the energy and individuality that makes the LGBTQ com-

munity so unique. It is certain to be as surprising and unique as the community itself.

But for first-timers, Spritzer has some advice. “[People] can expect to see some big hair, they can expect to see some bright colors, and they can just expect to see exactly what the title says, us just bubbling with pride, being able to do what we do. There’s going to be some amazing performances from some of my all-time favorite drag performers in the area. They can expect to see the amazing Cookie Couture, who is going to be DJing for us, and I am so excited... It’s just gonna be a big ole’ love fest, a big ole’ Pride love fest.”

So, if you’ve felt cooped up in the house, a little isolated, and in need of reconnection to Seattle’s amazing LGBTQ community, look no further than Anita Spritzer’s “Bubbling with Pride” event. It is sure to put a smile on your face and quench your need for connection. Come on down and celebrate the amazing drag performances inspired by Seattle’s own vibrant LGBTQ community.

For PrideFest details, go to www. seattlepridefest.org.

BI-WEEKLY! FIND US WHEREVER YOU LISTEN TO PODCASTS!