Celebration continues in Austin after last week's parade; Houston's huge nighttime parade coming June 23; OKC has weekend slate of parties

Former American Idol finalist Kimberly Caldwell of Katy, Texas, will be a special guest performer during the finals of Houston’s Pride Idol competition on Saturday, June 23. Semi-finals for the competition will be held Sunday, June 15, at Guava Lamp.

Fresh off the heels of a successful Pride celebration in Austin last Saturday, this weekend will see Pride events in Houston, San Antonio, Oklahoma City and more in Austin.

Pride Idol Competition, Houston's version of Dallas' Voice of Pride, will have it's semi-finals round Sunday, June 17, at 9 p.m. at Guava Lamp.

Pride Idol's MySpace page says that "The competition is going to be fierce, and all of the undiscovered talent in the GLBT community has an opportunity to shine in a competition that offers fabulous prizes and a performance slot on Pride Houston's Main Stage at the celebration of Saturday, June 23."

American Idol finalist Kimberly Caldwell will be the special guest performer during the final round next Saturday, before the Main Stage performance.

All of this leads up to the big Pride celebration next weekend, June 23, which is capped off by a nighttime parade with 1,000-plus participants and an expected 150,000 or more attendees, making it the largest Pride celebration in the Southwest.

This year's grandmasters are Jack Valinski, the host of Houston's radio show "Queer Voices," Maria Gonzalez, a long-time local volunteer, and Garnet Coleman, a Texas House of Representatives member from Houston.

For more details on location and parking advice for the parade, visit www.http//pridehouston.org.

San Antonio also has a Pride Idol contest going on. Their finals will be Saturday in HemisFair Park at 7 p.m. Admission is free. The contest is part of a bigger Pride celebration going on in the park from noon until 10 p.m.

Austin’s 2007 gay Pride celebration kicked off last weekend with a festival and nighttime parade. (Photo courtesy of EQUALITY TEXAS)

An interfaith service will be held from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. and will include the posting of the colors, invocation and a proclamation from the mayor.

It will be followed by a pet pageant from 1:45 p.m. to 2:12 p.m., and performances by local bands Groveline, Open Chapter and Kari LIVE from 2:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. At 5:30 the music will continue with Shawn's DJ Service, raffles and giveaways.

An after party will be held at Saint.

The Oklahoma City 20 Annual Pride Parade and Festival will take place both Saturday and Sunday starting at noon each day.

Oklahoma City has a similar schedule to San Antonio with another singing competition and pet parade until 5 p.m. on Saturday. After that, they put on local entertainers, highlighted by Pinkie and the Snakeshakers. Sunday will be the finals for their competition.

The festival had some difficulty getting off the ground this year because of new city regulations about vendors in the park, but the OKC Pride, Inc. says on it's Web site that, "We went on despite the changes, and are better for it."

Finally, in Austin this weekend is the second annual "Pride in Our Families Picnic." It will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Beverly Sheffield Northwest District Park.

This comes after last weekend's Pride Texas Festival of Austin, which brought in a record, but undisclosed, amount of money for Equality Texas, an origination that lobbies for LGBT rights in the state legislator.

Marianne DeLeon, the director of development for Equality Texas, calls it one of the "best festivals ever."

"The crowd reached soaring numbers this year, nearly 5000 participants," she said. "Equality Texas is quite proud of the 2007 Pride Texas festival and the fact that the community supported us not only by producing the festival, but by also participating in it."

E-mail briscoe@dallasvoice.com



This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition, June 15, 2007.