Seattle Pride Parade, Fest may be canceled

After 32 years, Seattle Pride Parade and Festival organizers may scrap the entire event.

"We don't know" whether there will be a parade this year, said Weston Sprigg, vice president of Seattle Out and Proud. The group's dozen or so volunteers are tired, he said. The group owes $102,000 to the city after moving the parade and festival from its longtime home in Capitol Hill to Seattle Center in 2006.

More than 200,000 people attended the celebration for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, but the organizers didn't make enough money from sponsorships and donations to cover the cost of holding the event at Seattle Center, which was far more expensive than the previous site, Volunteer Park.

The group's board plans to meet on Tuesday to make a final decision on the event, which was planned for the weekend of June 24.

A separate group led by the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Community Center is discussing planning other gay-pride events to fill the vacuum.

In February, the group said it would partner with event organizer IES Production, which would produce the festival and pay $50,000 of the debt to the city.

The status of that is now uncertain, Sprigg said, and John Merner, deputy director at Seattle Center, says he is sending the bill to the city's legal department to collect.

The decision to move to Seattle Center was criticized by many on Capitol Hill, considered the heart of Seattle's gay community.

"An event of this scale requires considerable sponsorship, and I think with all the controversy swirling around Pride these past couple of years made it hard to secure that sponsorship," Merner said.

Sharon Pian Chan: 206-464-2204 or schan@seattletimes.com. Lornet Turnbull: 206-464-2420 or lturnbull@seattletimes.com.