WILTON MANORS — Despite a series of announcements from Pride South Florida on its intentions to host a Pride Parade in Wilton Manors, the city has announced its own plan for the annual Stonewall Street Festival and Parade.
The new and confirmed dates are Friday, June 19 for the twilight parade which will begin at dusk, with the popular Pride Street Festival set for all day on Saturday, June 20. Wilton Drive will be closed from Five Points to NE 20th Street for both events.
The official Wilton Manors Stonewall 2015 will be administrated by the Island City Foundation, a division of Wilton Manors Entertainment Group.
Last year, Pride South Florida produced the event, and has been shrouded in controversy amid allegations of misappropriations of funds and other improprieties by prior board members. The event is alleged to have not produced a profit for several years as well.
Recently, the entire board of directors of Pride South Florida was replaced, with attorney and SFGN publisher Norm Kent taking over control of the non-profit last September. It was then that planning began on the 2015 Stonewall Event.
In mid-January, Kent issued a press release under the banner of Stonewall Pride Wilton Manors that said, “Heeding the advice of a host of community non-profit organizations, Pride South Florida announced today that it will be hosting only one singular pride weekend this year, in mid-June.
Entitled ‘Free Pride 2015,’ the group will be holding an open-air, one day outdoor festival in Holiday Park in Fort Lauderdale on Saturday, June 13, to be followed by the Stonewall Parade down Wilton Drive in Wilton Manors on the afternoon of Sunday, June 14.
There was only one problem. Kent had not secured the date with the City of Wilton Manors nor received their nod to produce the event. In fact, he did not officially offer his presentation for Pride South Florida to administer the event until a city meeting on January 27, two weeks after the press release.
While hearing Kent’s proposal on that date, the city had been heavily in talks with the Wilton Manors Entertainment Group to create a new division to produce the event. The following day it made its decision to eliminate Pride South Florida from the equation, and internally handle its own event.
By then, of course, not only had Pride South Florida announced its parade, but also assigned administrative positions for exhibition space and entertainment. Kent kept phoning the city for an update, unaware that his organization had been cut out of the loop.
Wilton Manors Mayor Gary Resnick told the Agenda: “Stonewall is tremendously important to the city and our community. We’re thrilled that some wonderful volunteers with experience putting on this event, once again stepped forward to partner with the city. It promises to be a terrific event for everyone to celebrate.”
As for Pride South Florida, yesterday the organization issued a release via Facebook that said, “The Board of Directors of Pride South Florida voted unanimously to move its 2015 ‘Fort Lauderdale Pride’ festival to the weekend of October 9 at Holiday Park. Pride South Florida will conduct the Fort Lauderdale Pride event under the theme of ‘We’re Coming Out,’ as October 11 is in fact National Coming Out Day. It is also the weekend of the Fort Lauderdale Gay and Lesbian Film Festival.”
Fort Lauderdale Pride Chairman Norm Kent admitted that moving the date was not easy for Pride South Florida. “(It was) difficult, but it would be detrimental and devastating to have two groups competing for Pride patrons a week apart in the middle of June,” he said. “So we adapted to the situation. Faced with this crisis, our board did the right and proper thing. The new festival dates and plans are spectacular. Our sponsors and business partners are all very excited about it.”
Suffice it to say, the City of Wilton Manors wants no part of the effort.
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