HOP throws in the towel on Pridefest

Volume 1, Number 35 | The Weekly Newspaper of Chelsea | May 18 - 24, 2007

By Paul Schindler

Heritage of Pride, which organizes five major events annually during LGBT Pride Week, has officially cancelled plans for the Pridefest street festival that it has held for the past 15 years, due to the city’s denial of its permit application.

HOP had attempted to change the terms of its annual Pridefest permit from its traditional venue in the West Village for the same day as the Pride March to the previous day, Saturday, June 23, on Eighth Avenue in Chelsea.

Over a period dating back to December, the group had been informally assured by city officials that the change would be fine, but on April 27, the mayor’s Community Assistance Unit abruptly announced that the revised plan constituted an application for a “new” permit, which would run afoul of a city moratorium on approval of new street festivals that began in 2003.

In an emergency meeting on May 8, HOP voted to cancel the event unless the city relented by May 11. On that day, the Gay Officers Action League held a last-minute meeting with officials from the police department, but were told that the decision had been made by the mayor’s office. NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly, in an interview with Chelsea Now’s sister paper Gay City News last week, however, conceded that his department had voiced concerns about the increased cost of overtime from spreading the march and festival over two days in different neighborhoods.

The mood at the May 8 meeting was one of anger, with HOP officials vowing not to return to what some members termed the “closet” of the West Village site near Washington Street. HOP will hold an emergency public forum at 7 p.m. on May 23 at the LGBT Community Center on West 13th Street to brainstorm about organizing a response to the city, and the group intends to hold on to the traditional West Village permit, perhaps as a venue for a protest.

Dennis Spofford, an HOP spokesperson, confirmed this week that after the May 11 deadline passed, vendors were informed of the cancellation.

In addition to the march and the Pridefest, HOP holds an LGBT Pride Rally, slated for June 17 in Bryant Park, Rapture, a women’s dance to be held the evening of June 23 at Pier 54 on the Hudson at 13th Street, and another evening dance on June 24, also at Pier 54.