Project Funway, a runway exhibition, entertainment showcase and street fair, is just one highlight New Hope, Pa.’s third annual Pride Weekend.
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Invited to the Party
By: Jillian Kalonick
Though pride season brings a series of festivals and parades, mostly in June Gay Pride Month New Hope, Pa., gets an early start with its late May celebration. This year’s festival, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, has another distinction.
After expenses, this year’s proceeds will benefit Human Rights Campaign, Fighting AIDS Continuously Together (FACT: Bucks County) and the Rainbow Room, a youth center of Planned Parenthood Association of Bucks County. Many pride festivals save proceeds for the following year’s events, but giving to charity has always been part of the concept of New Hope Celebrates, says Dan Brooks, coordinator of the third annual festival.
The event also is raising awareness of New Hope as a gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender travel destination, says Mr. Brooks, who owns the Wishing Well Guesthouse in New Hope.
A resident of New Hope and New York City, Mr. Brooks found that within the New York gay community, New Hope wasn’t as well known as he thought it should be. But this year, at a gay travel expo in New York, "No one asked me ‘Where’s New Hope?’" he says. "There’s now a younger generation of GLBT people more aware of where they can go within an hour and a half of major cities that are fun and where they feel welcomed."
The "missing link" to this year’s festival is Project Funway, a runway exhibition, entertainment showcase and street fair that will close Main Street between Bridge and Ferry streets May 20 (rain date May 21). Kim Stolz, an openly lesbian contestant on TV’s America’s Next Top Model, will emcee the runway show. New Hope boutiques Savioni Designer Clothing, Metro, Primadonna’s Closet and After the Ride will provide the fashions. The event gives local merchants a chance to get involved, says Mr. Brooks.
The show is just one of the weekend’s events. Also part of the festivities is "New Hope Idol," a singing contest open to local teens; a pride bike ride; a "Gayly Touring Historic New Hope" walking tour led by Roy Ziegler; and live entertainment at Odette’s, Triumph Brewing Co. and the Raven.
Jason Bellini of the gay and lesbian network LOGO will be covering the weekend’s events. New Hope Celebrates is one of six small-town pride festivals that the network will showcase as part of a program that will air July 4.
"Basically it shows how a small community can bind together," says Mr. Brooks. "Here, gay life is really mainstream. In New Hope, being a gay person is like being a person anywhere else."
New Hope Celebrates Pride Weekend 2006, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, will be held in New Hope, Pa., May 19-21. Project Funway will be held on Main Street, New Hope, Pa., May 20, entertainment noon-3:30 p.m., fashion show 3:30-5 p.m. Tickets cost $20. For information and tickets, visit www.newhopecelebrates.com. Also on the Web: www.gaybuckscounty.com