Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer
For the first time since 1977, there won't be a pride march or any other organized pride event other than bar parties on Seattle's Capitol Hill in June.

Michael Wells, head of Broadway's business association, told the Seattle P-I that he does not know of any events planned for the street this year.

Wells said bars on Capitol Hill might suffer from the absence of a pride march on Broadway. But he said gays and lesbians would probably go to Capitol Hill after the downtown parade and Seattle Center festival that Sunday.

Anna Bacler, operations manager of The Seattle LGBT Community Center, which helped plan the march on Broadway after organizers moved the parade downtown in 2006, also told the P-I that nothing is on the group's books this year.

The LGBT Center, which is recovering from financial problems, "believed it would not be in its best financial interests" to work on the march this year, she said.

The Center announced previously that it would significantly scale back its QueerFest event which has been held for the past two years at Volunteer Park. It said it would not hold the event at the park this year, but would consider venues such as Neighbours nightclub for some QueerFest events.

Speaking for herself and not her organization, Bacler said, "It was nice to have" the march. But noting that some saw it as competing with the downtown parade, she told the P-I, "It's good to not have that division."

Organizers of the annual gay pride festival in Seattle are expecting 25,000 people at the Seattle Center this year after the downtown pride parade on June 29.

The annual parade and march has faced difficulties in recent years. Seattle Out and Proud, the group that organizes the parade, angered some in the gay community by moving the procession from Broadway.

The group also piled up debt from the after-parade festival at the Seattle Center in 2006.

Last year, Seattle Out and Proud said it could not afford to throw a festival at all. However, events planner Egan Orion stepped in and threw the festival, but scaled it back from three days to one, and contained it only to the center's Fisher Pavilion.

Seattle Out and Proud will still start the parade at 11 a.m. this year. Orion will organize the festival, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Full article: No gay pride events for Broadway, planners say | Seattle P-I