Seattle PrideFest and OneDegree Events, producers of the Pride Weekend party/festival at Seattle Center, announced a while back their intention to solicit 100 "Community Members" who would donate $200 each for the big event.

And Pride Project -- the 501(c)3 non-profit producing this year's festival, called PrideFest -- is close to reaching the goal. As of this morning, they are just nine donors away from the goal.

Online donations can be made through the PrideFest website. (The money transits through PayPal which takes credit cards and other forms of payment.)

A festival like PrideFest is an expensive undertaking -- "nearly $100,000" is the estimate offered by the site. That high expense is, of course, one of the reasons there has been such organizational trauma for other groups that tried to host similar events.

Pride Project explains that the group will use the money raised for these expenses:

• Renting the Seattle Center grounds
• Artist performance fees
• Staging, decoration, banners
• Flyers, ads, website, design, posters
• Setup of beer garden, tables, booths
• Donations to local non-profits (last year we gave nearly $10,000)
• Production staff (the Bite of Seattle folks do all our booth layout and setup work)
• Administrative Costs
• Flight and Hotel for performers
• Ground transportation for talent

OneDegree's Egan Orion, who has for several years produced a range of wildly successful bar parties -- including the currently-running B-Bar series at the Baltic Room, is also festival director for PrideFest. He hints on the festival site a bit about the complicated genesis the of the festival:

When we decided to take over the Pride Festival in 2007, we knew it would be a challenge but we were up for it if it meant the community would get the celebration it deserved. Last year's Festival, which we ended up calling PrideFest, was a huge success.

Nearly 100 vendors, sponsors, and non-profits, a dozen local and national acts, and tens of thousands of you came out to support PrideFest. As planning for 2008 started, we knew from the start we wanted to make it even bigger and better.

We'll have a bigger footprint at the Seattle Center, even more businesses and non-profits participating, and a list of guest artists to make PrideFest 2008 the biggest Pride Festival Seattle has ever seen.

We appreciate your support and look forward to a great 2008. See you in June at the Center!

OneDegree, which is a for-profit company, operates PrideFest, according to the website but, "As of now, none of our staff gets paid a penny for their services, and some (especially our Festival Director) give months of their time and money out of their own pocket."

It's a party that many look forward to as a highlight of the summer. If you can afford it, this is a chance to make sure that everything works out well for the event again this June.