San Diego celebrated Pride this past weekend and according to organizers it was the largest and most well attended Pride weekend in the organization’s 30-year history. San Diego LGBT Pride Executive Director Suanne Pauley said the weekend of events drew nearly 200,000 participants to its rally, parade and two-day festival, which included 182 contingents in the parade and concerts by Kristine W, Maxine Nightingale, Berlin and k.d. lang.

The festival grounds this year were expanded along Balboa Drive, north of Juniper Street, to accommodate nearly 400 booths and special attractions that also included a dunk tank, karaoke stage, a larger Art of Pride exhibit and the return of Pride’s Senior Connection.

One of the booths at the Pride festival that towered over the rest was The Center’s, which featured an enormous rock-climbing wall.

“Pride is always an amazing weekend for us,” said Delores Jacobs, executive director of The Center. “Congratulations to the Pride and staff board for another outstanding event! Each year at Pride we get an opportunity to reach out beyond the community members who live and work in the community and to help connect those who live further out to what’s happening in the community and at The Center. We have a great time, get to talk to lots of interesting individuals and families, and to celebrate the depth and breadth of the community. This year was particularly important for us and for all the organizations involved in the ‘Deliver The Vote Project’. We were able to obtain more than 3,500 voter pledge cards and to register more than 1,000 new voters. More importantly, we got to talk with lots of folks about voting, their past voting lapses, and why it so important that our community use its collective voice at the polls.”

According to Pride Media Coordinator Frank Sabatini Jr., the number of visitors to the festival was noticeably greater on both Saturday and Sunday compared to last year, with “longer-than-usual lines” of people appearing at the festival’s entrance gate immediately after the parade concluded on Saturday. “But extra space inside the festival provided plenty of wiggle room for visitors to soak up the highly spirited atmosphere and many attractions inside,” he added.

According to Sabatini, a vast amount of mainstream media coverage also contributed to the success of this year’s parade and festival.

“Mainstream press coverage of Pride weekend was robust and positive,” Sabatini said. “And our efforts to obtain advance stories in the print and electronic media panned out beautifully as nearly all six local TV affiliates began producing packages a few days before the event. As the weekend got underway, the stations ran informative segments on every edition of their newscasts. I have so many TV reporters and producers tell me each year how much they love covering this event.”

Print coverage also increased this year with an article in the June issue of San Diego Magazine, complete weekend coverage by San Diego News Service and a string of articles in the weekly Filipino Press, which began running as early as May.

“The San Diego Union-Tribune did a terrific job in their articles, which were accompanied by parade and festival maps as well as tasteful photos,” Sabatini said. “Two large stories received placement on B-1, both July 29 and Aug. 1. And a two-page spread highlighting the k.d. lang concert and festival attractions ran in Night & Day on July 29. Despite the squawking I often hear in the community about the U-T, the paper has editorially supported Pride weekend for the past 10 years or so in a positive manner.”

In addition to the parade and festival, Powerhouse Productions produced four massive Pride parties at venues which included 4th & B downtown, the San Diego Sports Arena, the San Diego Zoo and the E Street Alley club.

“The parties were great,” said Bill Hardt, the owner of Powerhouse Productions. “The numbers were very good; consistent with last year. It was just overall a great event. Everybody loved everything, except for the security at E Street Alley, which was quite frankly abusive to the guests and because of that we will never be going to back to E Street Alley again.”

Attendees to the closing party at E Street Alley had to wait in long lines caused by an exhaustive security check before gaining access to the club.

“Their security pat down is pretty extensive and what they found with the first few people that went through the doors were drugs in their wallets and drugs in their shoes,” Hardt said. “And that slowed the whole process down to an absolutely excruciating pace.”

As in past years, Powerhouse Productions will be donating 15 percent of its revenues this year to San Diego LGBT Pride. Traditionally, Quantum Productions, Powerhouse’s parent company, also makes a sizeable donation to Stepping Stone, a GLBT drug and alcohol treatment program.

This week Pride announced the winners of the parade awards, which were judged by a panel of community members.

The 2004 categories and winners were:

Most Original – Pacific Beach United Methodist Church

Best Use of Theme (30 Years of Pride: Strength in Numbers) – Different Strokes Swim Team

Best Community Organization Unit – San Ysidro Health Center’s CASA South Bay

Most Outrageous and Creative Marching Unit – San Diego Coalition for Peace and Justice

Best Commercial Float – Family Health Centers of San Diego

Most Outrageous and Creative Unit – Azalea Park Neighborhood Association

Best Display of an Out-of-Town Unit – Cheer L.A.