The Proper Guide to Life: Pride in Chicago

File Under: Bursting With Pride

June is Pride month in Chicago and it all culminates in a big celebration weekend, beginning with Pride Fest, a street festival in the Lakeview neighborhood. This year marked the 4th year that Pride Fest took place, and it was the first year that the festival was two days long.

I attended Pride Fest on Saturday, the second day of the fest. It’s not much different than any of the other area street festivals. There are food booths, booze vendors, merchants selling clothing, jewelry, accessories and piles upon piles of useless crap. There are stages and numerous performances took place both days. Saturday’s big name entertainment was Thelma Houston, Crystal Waters and Deborah (DEBBIE) Gibson, as well as local favorites The Joans (a Joan Crawford Tribute band) and 16 Candles. The Joans were a hot trannie mess, they were fun and I’ll happily see them again. Deborah (Debbie) Gibson was a major disappointment. Perhaps it was the sound mix, or perhaps it was a 40 year old woman singing songs that were cute when she was 16. Back in the 80’s when she worbled about heartbreak and lost love it was cute and sweet, now it’s kind of sad.

Dan, Luis, Polo and David, our friend from DC, joined me at the festival later in the day. We wandered a while then found a cool corner of a bar where we sucked down a bunch of drinks. Then, it was time to see 16 Candles. It began to rain but we managed to dodge a major storm, we enjoyed the show regardless of the weather. What I didn’t enjoy was the full glass of beer that was spilled down my right leg and collected in my shoe. I took my shoe off and poured a bunch of it out. I should have offered to pour it back into the glass from where it came.

After the show I met up with my friends John and Vince briefly. We chatted a few minutes but I was tired, sweaty and beer soaked, so I really needed to go home.

Below are some pictures from the day.