O ut in the Park is going to be a real drag this year. In fact, there is going to be more drag than ever. Saturday’s event marks the 10th anniversary for Out in the Park, Tacoma’s annual Gay Pride festival produced by the Out in Tacoma organization. The event in our backyard, Wright Park, is probably one of the most outrageously fun events of the summer.

As a much older and wiser festival, its entertainment lineup has been carefully planned to please a very diverse audience. The earlier acts will be much mellower in order not to offend families with children. Later in the day, the more audacious and risqué acts will take the stage — and most of the audience area too. The stage entertainment will be MC’d by charismatic hosts Jenuwine Beaute and Lady Chablis.

Entertainment

There will be live music performances by country singer Melly Anne Dalton and Open Arms Community Church Choir. Kim Archer Band will express its soulful grooviness and kick the party into high gear. There will also be a variety of live music, drag and spoken word performances by Oasis Youth Monologues, a group from Oasis Youth Center, a drop-in center for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and questioning (GLBTQ) youth. The Oasis Dance Squad will perform a few choreographed dance numbers.

There will be two performances of selected songs from “Rocky Horror Picture Show” by the Blue Mouseketeers from the Blue Mouse Theater. 

Throughout Saturday’s event there will be multiple drag performances including ones by Ms. Gay Washington and Mr. and Ms. Gay Tacoma. A hilarious gospel music drag performance by Lady Chablis and Lady Ebony Chanel will shock and inspire.

Drag for Dollars, a fund raiser for Out in Tacoma, features drag performers who compete against each other to see who can collect the most cash from the audience.

The Royal Knights Drag Kings Revue, a dashing and handsome bunch of “boys” who perform a weekly show on Saturday nights at gay friendly bar On the Rocks in downtown Tacoma will perform three group numbers and two individual numbers of choreographed lip-syncing at the festival. While co-founder Sir Charlie Menace would not say which songs they will perform, “he” did say that they tried to select their strongest numbers, the ones that draw in the crowd and make them smile and laugh. The music could be old time crooners like Sinatra, hip hop, alternative or even comedy. 

The stage entertainment will close with the customary “We Are Family” dance-and sing-along.

What Out is about

“Our main objective is to bring together the non-profits that exist in the community, to make Tacoma a better place and to have fun,” says Out in Tacoma co-chair Stephanie Pollak, who is in charge of entertainment and marketing. “We spotlight the non-profits and make sure people know about them. We constantly promote non-profit and gay-friendly businesses.”

According to the Out in Tacoma organization’s Web site, they are everyday citizens who noticed missing links within the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, intersex, question and straight ally community. To bridge these gaps they formed Out in Tacoma and started planning fun events that break through the “clique” mentality and pull the community together.

Though the majority of non-profits they are affiliated with are LBGTQ-centered, it’s not exclusively so. “We are weird and inclusive like that,” jokes Pollak.

“We work with other organizations in order to assist them in working with the gay community,” she adds. “The LBGTQ community needs are very different than other people. You support us and we will support you.”

Out in Tacoma also distributes condom packets in local bars, a practice that another organization called Brother to Brother used to do before they ran out of funding. “AIDS awareness is important to us,” says Pollak.

Another annual event that Out in Tacoma participates in is the creation of a float for the Tacoma Daffodil Parade.

Out in Tacoma relies on volunteers, fundraisers and sponsor support to cover the costs of these events. They issue one caution to potential volunteers via their Web site, “Warning: We laugh a lot ... no, seriously, I think it might be a problem ...”

“I’ve always been an organizer and a volunteer,” says Pollak. “I used to work with a homeless youth outreach. A friend of mine pulled me into this. We have a great group of people.”

Out in Tacoma is a non-profit organization that just this year became a 501c3.

“This change will enable us to approach larger corporations that we know are supportive,” explains Pollak. “The most important part is that we will be able to give people a receipt so that they can write their contributions off on their taxes. It opens ridiculous amounts of doors. We will have access to grants from organizations that have pools of money set aside for events like ours.”

Local bars Tempest, Club Sapphire and Airport Bar and Grill are helping by putting one dollar aside when people purchase special cocktails including the Woo Woo at Tempest ($7), the Creamsicle at Airport Bar and Grill ($5.50) and the Sapphire Rim Job at Club Sapphire ($4.50). After you sample all three, you can vote for your favorite on the Out in Tacoma Web site www.outintacoma.org.

Another fundraiser for Out in Tacoma includes sales of T-shirts designed by House of Tattoo owner Katie Williams, which will be available for purchase at the Out in Tacoma booth at Saturday’s festival.

Out in the Park

When: Saturday, July 14, noon to 6 p.m.

Where: Wright Park, 316 S. G St., Tacoma

Admission: Free.

Kids: The festival will have a kid’s corner with a Sponge Bob bounce house, a clown show at noon, a person creating free balloon animals between 1:30-2:30 p.m., three kids-only raffles and lots of free face painting.

Food: Festival organizers took special care to provide food options that are as diverse as the array of festival goers they expect, including vegetarian, diabetic and organic.

n After Party: There will be an Out in the Park after-party following the event at Club Sapphire, 5412 S. Tacoma Way. For directions, call 253.475.6322.