If you’re in Los Angeles this Sunday, downtown LA is THE PLACE to be for the very first ever DTLA Proud Festival! Many WOWlebrities and friends of World of Wonder will be participating in the day-long celebration on Sunday, August 7 starting at noon and going all the way until 10PM when DJs Chris Bowen & Victor Rodriguez close out the night. (See full schedule) Our friends the Boulet Brothers are the masters of ceremonies, and I got the chance to ask them a few questions about DTLA Proud 2016.
WOELD OF WONDER: What is the DTLA Proud Festival?
THE BOULET BROTHERS: It’s a one day celebration of the growing queer community in downtown Los Angeles. We tried to bring elements of the neighborhood’s past, present, and rapidly expanding future together to show unity and to support each other and encourage the neighborhood’s new growth.
How did you get involved with DTLA Pride?
Our life’s work has really been about exposing, promoting, and supporting alternative queer life, expression, and art. It’s what got us into gay publishing in New York City, into nightlife in Los Angeles, and ultimately our own drag. That culminated for us last year with the launch of our downtown Los Angeles queer mega-club Queen Kong. It’s huge, it’s freaky, it’s fun, and it celebrates and supports a new queer movement in DTLA that has blossomed as an alternative to the mainstream scene on the west side. That being said, we have been talking about doing a Pride event since we started Queen Kong, and other bar owners and promoters downtown had also been thinking about doing something themselves, so we all just came together and did it as one.
How is this different from West Hollywood’s Pride celebration?
It’s completely unrelated. This isn’t an alternative to LA Pride, and it’s not meant to serve as the answer to people’s complaints about LA Pride. This is just a growing community coming together to celebrate our presence in the neighborhood for one day.
Who will be at DTLA Pride? What will there be to do? What are you most looking forward to?
We tried to get everyone that has been a part of the gay DTLA party and performance scene involved along with representatives from our trans committee, youth group, community committee, an arts and culture group, bands, drag queens, DJs, performers – there are a lot of people involved in making this happen and it’s all DTLA related.
As far as what there will be to do, there will of course be amazing entertainment on the main stage featuring a huge lineup of gay DTLA related speakers, bands, DJs and performers, as well as a water park and water slides to keep cool in, community booths where you can meet people from the neighborhood and learn about their social groups and movements, art tents, gay vendors, and food trucks. There will be thousands of beautiful gay men and women from all walks of life, ages, and color to celebrate with, learn from, and share positive pink love with. There’s going to be a big queer rainbow shining on DTLA next Sunday and we will all be waiting to meet you there!
