Portland Pride 2011 in review

Me and the Compere sisters, just a small part of the qPDX parade contingent

It was a weekend of rainbows and debauchery as usual this Portland Pride 2011. qPDX had fun at events at Mississippi Studios, Holocene, Crush, Rotture, Saratoga and outdoors in weather that jumped from sunny to misty rain in true Portland fashion. Photos from Sunday’s parade and waterfront celebration are forthcoming from special professional photography guest Anna Campbell and a video from yet another special contributor, filmmaker Cathleen Arnerich, but in the meantime here’s a recap of my time at Pride and some links to photo galleries already uploaded. Feel free to post your Pride 2011 memories in the comment section below!

Blow Pony featuring Leslie Hall, CJ and the Dolls, Feyonce and others was fun. It was really fun, just as we all knew it would be. But the surprise hit of the weekend was Thursday’s Queerlandia that played to our vanity with both a photoboth and Fliptography, had an amazing lineup of performances and a huge lovely patio with cute undies for sale and plenty of room to chill. Plus DJ Lunch Lady pounded the jams on the Bar Bar side all night long. What a trooper!

Friday’s T*Party Picnic is kinda Portland’s answer to the idea of a Trans March, but I discussed the idea of actually marching with some podcasters from Seattle. Both this is the Dyke March could also use some performances in my opinion to get the crowd rallied. But despite the nasty weather Saturday afternoon and a lot of grumbling about a route many agree doesn’t allow the gay ladies to be seen Saturday’s Dyke March was pretty well attended. The idea to storm down the old route didn’t coalesce but I did get driven to the march on the back of a motorcycle in true dyke fashion. Huzzah!

Sunday’s parade felt like it went well and The Oregonian reports that there were over 25,000 attendees. Our contingent was strong, if hungover, and I’m torn between doing it up really big next year with an updated/upgraded banner, motorized float and more nakedness and just getting to watch the parade, which I miss. I have about 9 months to figure it out.

In some ways this was a less exciting, or maybe just a bit more mellow Pride than years past, but we also have zero violence or gay bashings to report. All in all big fun and good job Portland queers.

So until more pics are up, here’s some video of Leslie Hall playing at Blow Pony courtesy Wayne Bund at Just Out.