Features

12th Annual Stonewall Street Festival & Parade

June 9, 2011

The 12th Annual Stonewall Street Festival & Parade takes place June 19

One of summer’s most anticipated events in South Florida, Stonewall Street Festival and Parade, is coming up. This time led by Wedner & Friends Special Events Management instead of a local non-profit, the festival will have more star power than ever. In business since 1996, the company has produced events such as SAVE Dade Halloween Party, Winter Party Miami Beach, First Night Miami, the Miami Jewish Film Festival, and the Fire Island Pines International Film Festival. The company is excited to continue the celebration, started over a decade ago commemorating with pride the Stonewall rebellion on Christopher Street in June, 1969.

Stonewall will also be bigger than ever since the festival will stretch from 5 Points to NE 20th Street on Wilton Drive with multiple stages filled with entertainment; exhibits from sponsors, merchants, and area non-profits; demonstrations; games; street performers; and an exciting assortment of gourmet food trucks, and beverage stations.

This year, the parade will take place at dusk instead of early morning, which should be great for those who are worried about the early morning heat. It will include celebrities, floats, costumes, equality couples (long-term same sex couples), groups and travel to NE 20th Street where the culmination of the day’s events will be a Pride Dance.

The hosts this year will provide constant entertainment and include Doria Biddle, producer and co-host, who has written for MTV, the animated series Rugrats and Recess, and has offered her slyly funny commentary on various talking-head programs. She has also served as an editor at Teen Magazine, where she learned all about boys and makeup; Frank DeCaro, is a writer /performer and host of The Frank DeCaro Show every weekday on Sirius XM Satellite Radio. He is best known for his six-and-a-half-year stint as the flamboyant film critic on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and his pioneering gay memoir “A Boy Named Phyllis;” and Comic Keith Price, the first out African-American personality on satellite radio. As co-host and associate producer of the internationally popular Morning Jolt w/ Larry Flick, on SIRIUS XM Satellite’s OUT Q station, Keith shares his viewpoints and brand of humor on current events with the world, while also interviewing some of the most iconic and news making figures of pop culture and entertainment.

There will be several activities going on at the Stonewall Street Festival. Those with a competitive side will enjoy the Athletic Area, which will have a soak tank, various games of skill, and booths for the display and recruitments of various gay sports teams and leagues. There will also be a Family Fun Area for GLBT families, which may include a bounce house, slides, arts & crafts activities, storytellers, musicians, and magicians. In addition, local children’s organizations such as the Fort Lauderdale Museum of Discovery & Science, Fort Lauderdale Children’s Theatre, Wannado City, Young At Art Children’s Museum, will be represented at Stonewall.

Many people say that the best part of a street festival is the food, and Stonewall plans to follow that theory. They will show the culinary excellence of Greater Fort Lauderdale, with a chef exhibition, gourmet food trucks, and festival food. In addition to each bar mixing and serving their own creations at their establishments, The Drive will house various bar stations with donated liquor/beer/water/juice. Each of these stations will be “manned” by staff from a local bar, and a décor competition will ensue with the winning establishment being “crowned” the 2011 Stonewall Street Festival Décor Queen for Best Bar Station.

With all of these exciting elements, the Stonewall Street Festival & Parade will surely be an event you won’t want to miss!

Stonewall Street Festival
June 19 at 4-9 p.m
From 5 Points to NE 20th Street
Wilton Manors
www.stonewallwiltonmanors.com