Date: Sun, 9 Jul 1995 10:42:10 -0400 (EDT) From: David Casti Subject: Down East Pride Submitted by: Rich Elkins News Release Greenville activists busy preparing for eastern North Carolina's first-ever gay pride celebration by Wynn Bone, Down East Pride Secretary The Countdown is currently underway for the first-ever lesbigay pride event to be held in eastern North Carolina. The Down East Pride Festival will take place in Greenville (NC) this September on the weekend starting with Friday the 22nd and continuing through Sunday the 24th. The members of Down East Pride - the organization which is sponsoring the pride festival - have been working for several months on making arrangements for the upcoming festival. Presently, a significant portion of the weekend's events have been arranged. What follows is a summary of those arrangements. The opening event of the festival will take place downtown at the Percolator Coffeehouse on Friday evening. There will be a special performance by a featured vocalist that evening. Also, a gay-themed art exhibit will be on display at the coffeehouse. The main event for the weekend will be the outdoor festival which will be held on Saturday in the Town Commons - the park which is located downtown by the river. This outdoor event will last from 12 noon till 5PM that day. Several bands have been lined up to perform from the amphitheater located in the park. A grand drag show will also take place from the amphitheater at mid-afternoon. Additionally, the entertainment will be interspersed with several speakers. Negotiations are continuing with Congresswoman Eva Clayton (D, NC-1) for her to address the crowd that day. Clayton's district runs through the Down East area. If she does speak from the amphitheater that day, she will become the highest ranking elected official from North Carolina to speak at a gay pride event. Negotiations are also underway to get Hollywood actress Sandra Bullock, who starred in _Speed_ with Keanu Reeves and in _While_You_Were_Sleeping_, to also speak that day. Bullock graduated from East Carolina University, located here in Greenville, and helped work her way through college by doing back-up dancing at the drag shows in the local gay bar. In addition to all the entertainment, speakers and celebreties that will be in the Town Commons that day, booths for organizations, vendors, and concessions will also be located throughout the park. There will be a gay-themed theater production on Saturday evening and a dance later that night. The sights for the theater production and the dance are currenly being negotiated. The Ramada has been selected as the host hotel for the festival. A special rate of $49 per room for up to four people has been arranged for festival attendees. To take advantage of this rate, the reservationist should be informed that the reservation is being made in order to attend the Down East Pride Festival. At the Ramada that weekend, Down East Pride will staff a hospitality suite. Visitor packets, festival information, and light refreshments will be available in the hospitality suite for the out-of-town guests. Also, the closing event of the festival will take place at the hotel. A buffet brunch will be served there on Sunday. Festival organizers are estimating that attendance at the festival will be somewhere between 750 to 1,000 people. If you would like more information about the festival, contact Down East Pride at PO Box 1691 Greenville, NC 27835-1691 or email at EAST.PRIDE@LAUNCHPAD.UNC.EDU Updates of the festival will be available also on the World Wide Web (WWW). The URL for Down East Pride's Home Page is: http://www.ecu.edu/~geelkins/dep.html Rich Elkins GEELKINS@ECUVAX.CIS.ECU.EDU also @ECUVM.CIS.ECU.EDU