2004
Pride celebrated 30 years of Pride with the theme “Strength in Numbers.” Although the number still didn’t reflect some of the earliest Pride events that have since been uncovered, the progress made in the intervening years was worth celebrating. The event had grown from humble beginnings to the city’s largest single day event, attracting 150,000 people to watch the parade.
Marriage equality was on the minds of many people. In November, the Massachusetts State Supreme Court ruled that the state’s constitution prevented marriage discrimination and gave the state legislature 180 days to rectify the situation, at which point the verdict would be enforced. On May 17th, Massachusetts became the first state in the union to allow same-sex couples to marry.
Rally
The rally at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion on Friday night featured keynote speaker Nadine Smith, a renowned activist and columnist from Florida, who had been the first African-American woman to run for Tampa’s city council. The rally featured speeches from local activists and politicians and awards were presented to a number of honorees, including Marci Bair and Dr. Pat Washington, who received the Champion of Pride award.
Parade
The parade the next morning featured San Diego’s own Nicole Murray-Ramirez as the Grand Marshal and a number of amazing and imaginative floats. Pacific Beach United Methodist Church had a sea-themed float, perennial favorite Rich’s had a gold-themed float and the ladies from Hillquest were present, of course, and promoted marriage equality for all.
Festival
The festival expanded north almost to Laurel Street in order to acquire more breathing space. The entertainment highlights consisted of club favorite Kristine W, Berlin (again), and performances by the Great American Yankee Freedom Band, and the Gay Men’s Chorus. One new stage added in 2004 was the Karaoke Stage, which made some fans cry out in excitement, while non-fans simply cried.
Experimenting
The entertainment lineup also featured a first time experiment. For years, people had been clamoring for big name headliners. Unfortunately, big name performers come with big price tags that are often out of reach for non-profits like Pride. So in 2004 Pride booked female favorite k.d.lang for a special performance which would take place at the nearby Starlight Theatre.
The idea was that the festival closed at 8 p.m. and the concert started an hour later, which would be plenty of time for fans to walk to the concert and enjoy the show. Tickets for the concert cost from $46.50 – $100 each. The thought was that the added revenue from the ticket sales would enable Pride to afford to hire top acts.
In theory, it was a great idea and it showed that Pride was willing to try new things, but in practice, the turnout was disappointing. People were either unwilling to pay the extra money, or unwilling to go to another venue when they could go out and hit the after-parties at the local clubs, or perhaps they simply weren’t fans of k.d. lang.