{"id":16049,"date":"2012-07-01T11:47:00","date_gmt":"2012-07-01T18:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/198.57.196.122\/~gdatwofo\/theavtimes\/?p=16049"},"modified":"2012-07-27T23:23:09","modified_gmt":"2012-07-28T06:23:09","slug":"pride-festival-draws-thousands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/2012\/07\/01\/pride-festival-draws-thousands\/","title":{"rendered":"Pride Festival draws thousands"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>LANCASTER \u2013 More than 2,000 people came through the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds Saturday for the fourth annual Pride Festival, organizers said.<\/p>\n

The event, which celebrates the valley\u2019s lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community, was hosted by The OUTreach Center .<\/p>\n

\u201cThis day has been phenomenal,\u201d said OUTreach Center President Sanie Andres. \u201cIt\u2019s an opportunity for us to get together to celebrate our diversity and to be visible in our community and let people know that we\u2019re a part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Festivities kicked off around 10 a.m. with music, food, and arts and crafts vendors.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Entertainment started around 11:30 a.m. with a performance from Sean Wiggins and Lone Goat, and stage performances continued throughout the day.<\/p>\n

Several rainbow-colored flags could be seen, throughout the fairgrounds, in recognition of the Pride Festival\u2019s theme, \u201cRaising the Colors.\u201d<\/em> The theme came from a contest won by former Senior Airman Charles McCrory.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor him it was like a merging of the end of \u2018Don\u2019t Ask Don\u2019t Tell\u2019, raising the rainbow colors and having some pride and visibility in our community,\u201d said OUTreach Board Member Sue Dell.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This year\u2019s Pride Festival was the biggest yet, Adres said.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsually we average about 25 to 25 vendors but this year we had nearly 80,\u201d he said. \u201cIn terms of attendance, we usually average from 500 to 800 people, but this year we\u2019ve crossed well over 2,000 people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had so much support from our non-LGBT allies,\u201d said Dell. \u201cThe parents, the siblings, the friends, it\u2019s just been positive all day. It\u2019s been a great family day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rene Padilla attended the festival with his wife, Rosa, and their one-year-old son Isca.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just decided to come out for the fun of it, for something different,\u201d said Padilla. \u201cThis is a really good atmosphere.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Others came out to support family members.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re here to support my sister-in-law,\u201d said Daniel, who attended the event with his girlfriend and several friends.<\/p>\n

Several community service organizations were also represented at the Pride Festival, including The NAACP, Antelope Valley Chapter.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether you\u2019re gay or straight, it really doesn\u2019t matter at this event,\u201d said AV-NAACP President Juan Blanco. \u201cThis is an event for family and for celebrating the freedom of being yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

For many more pictures from this event, visit our facebook page<\/a>.<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LANCASTER \u2013 More than 2,000 people came through the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds Saturday for the fourth annual Pride Festival, organizers said. The event, which celebrates the valley\u2019s lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community, was hosted by The OUTreach Center . \u201cThis day has been phenomenal,\u201d said OUTreach Center President Sanie Andres. \u201cIt\u2019s an opportunity for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16256,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16049"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}