To the editor:
On behalf of the Kansas City Diversity Coalition (KCDC), I would like to thank our community for supporting and celebrating KC PrideFest June 5-7 at Berkley Riverfront Park. It was a fabulous weekend of entertainment, food, exhibitors, and just hanging out. The one thing we have heard consistently is that “The Kansas City Pride Festival is back!” We could not agree more.
This year, the KCDC worked harder by listening to you. We received great ideas, recommendations and suggestions and implemented each of them as best we could. We also asked you to come up with our slogan, and you voted for “Love is the Cure,” which was perfect. We rebranded the festival and have received overwhelmingly positive comments regarding the addition of the rainbow heart and our KC PrideFest logo. We developed a website and Facebook page that have become the envy of pride festivals across the country.
Our goal was to keep our community informed about our plans, and we constantly posted updates on Facebook. Our entertainment schedule was posted six weeks out so that you could plan your weekend accordingly and not miss anything.
We increased sponsorships by 400 percent (they’re listed at www.gaypridekc.org) and established a special partnership with the City of Kansas City. They wanted everyone to know what an important role the LGBTQIA community plays in Kansas City and how important it is to celebrate our diversity. The Christopher Bond Bridge was lit up in rainbow colors -- a major commitment made by the city to publicly show its support of our gathering. We encourage everyone to go to the Kansas City Pride Facebook page and post the picture of the bridge on your wall as way to show our solidarity! While you’re at it, please take a few minutes to scroll through the hundreds of posted pictures from that weekend.
We had around 25,000 people attend KC PrideFest over three days; 85 businesses and community organizations had booths; and seven food vendors were serving up delicious festival fare. Our gross revenue was around $177,000, and our expenses to date are just above $175,000 -- it looks like we will be in the black!
With that said, we are busy working on KC PrideFest 2016, which will be June 3-5. Becoming our Facebook friend is the best way to stay updated on all the exciting plans.
Last but not least, I want to give special thanks to the Kansas City Diversity Coalition, which worked to deliver an incredible festival for our community. This group of volunteers worked tirelessly all year long. Their vision, support and direction gave Kansas City a festival that we all can be proud of. And special kudos go to all of our event volunteers, who truly made this event a resounding success – we cannot possibly thank them enough!
Bill Svoboda
Festival director,
KC PrideFest
