Festival grows along with expenses

Organizers see bright future for South Bay Pride Festival

Amber St James, Master of Ceremonies on the Live Stage during the South Bay Pride Art and Music Festival. (Eaton)

Around 7,500 people attended the 14th Annual South Bay Pride Art and Music Festival at Bayfront Park on Aug. 27, with a full day lineup of local musicians, DJs, art vendors, and community resources, all in celebration of South Bay’s LGBTQ+ community and allies.

Under the umbrella of the South Bay Alliance, South Bay Pride is its largest event of the year.

South Bay Pride Executive Director Joe Burke said it was a wonderful day, successful, and no incidents, so he was happy how well the festival went. He said there were a couple of highlights that made his day during the event.

San Diego pop and dance singer Matt Harkenrider debuted at South Bay Pride. (Fulcher)

“One was the level of entertainment that we had,’ he said. “Th B-Side Players, The Sleepwalkers, Ingenue on the live stage representing the bands of the area, and again with the DJs at the dance music stage.”

Burke said Baby Weight, the headliner at the DJ stage, a trans DJ, and although she was later in the evening, she brought a new crowd to the festival, and overall, the day was a remarkable success.

“We did some good work with monkeypox,” said Burke. “Registrations for people, and we did vaccinations at the park on Tuesday and Thursday with the County in association with South Bay Pride. We are leading the effort in the county with monkeypox. The genesis of their weekly coordinating group is us. South Bay Pride is not a party. South Bay Pride is about raising awareness for HIV, aging programs, and youth services, along with the normal social services that go along with any community group like this, but it is on both sides of the border. That is the most noteworthy thing and the most unknown thing about us. We are the actual catalyst of this. The County is not doing this by choice. We are underrepresented and we are historically disproportionately affected by HIV, and by extension, monkeypox.”

Burke said its intentions is to bring “reality” to the story, not only to get rid of the stigma shame of this, but the reality that the general public there are few vaccines right now, so it is all about teaching prevention.

“Know who you are sleeping with. Be monogamous, change your behavior a little bit for a while,” he said. “Our county is very conservative, but yet to get a message out like this to an at-risk community, you must get them where they are at, and you have to get them while they are hot. If you lose them, you are never going to see them again until it is too late.”

South Bay Pride Entertainment Director Mishelle Banaga said the entertainment was great the entire day. She said newcomer to the festival, Matt Harkenrider was “fantastic.”

“He got the crowd going,” he said. “When the whole stage started, it lit up with Santana Soul. And they always bring a good show. They have never disappointed. But Matt, he really got the crowd going, dancing, and kept that energy going for us. Which was really great.”

Banaga said Coastal Groove brought bigger bands with horns, and more dancing music to get the crowd energized.

Banaga said they started preparing the festival grounds on Thursday before the festival and expected to be done cleaning up by Tuesday. She said although putting the festival is fun, but it is challenging work with set up, tear down. She said that this year, they held the festival with only 15 volunteers.

“In the long run, looking back at it, it is kind of like having a baby,” she said. “You say you are never going to do it again, but you look back and remember it was an amazing show, you see all the positive feedback on social media, then we talk to each other and say, ‘How can we do this better next year. Who can we bring in next year to make it more dazzling?’”
Banaga, who is the lead guitarist for Ingenue, said their fans came out, but that with The Sleepwalkers, it is Cumbia music, and part of what she wanted to add to the festival, bigger bands, bigger sounds, which is inclusive of Chula Vista, National City, and South Bay.

Burke said there are a few things needed to improve the festival. Figuring out how to raise attendance for the event, bring in more volunteers, and also how to raise more money to support the festival.

“We have been here a long time waiting for the bayfront to happen,” he said. “Now Gaylord is coming in 2025, and that is going to change the whole character of the event. This is the reason we moved the event here in the first place. It is taking a small community-based pride and turning it into something that has the ability to raise enough money to fund community programs on the same level as San Diego Pride has been able to develop itself into. Now we will be marketing to pride tourists in the western U.S. It is also bringing this area into the spotlight. I have lived here a long time and Chula Vista is in my DNA. But this has been an obscure part of the county. Even many in Chula Vista does not know that this festival exists. But we are going to have a world-class venue here. But then I have already drunk the Kool-Aid, and I think we are going to have something huge here.”

Burke said that it is important for people in the community to become part of this event, to help it grow, and make a bigger impact on the community.
Banaga said it works really hard to get grants and waivers from the Port of San Diego, the city of Chula Vista so that the event can continue to be free to the public.

“We would like to keep it that way, but that is going to depend on continuous support from the city, the county, corporate donors, and generous people around San Diego,” adding that the cost this year was 40% more across the board, with some costs doubling, with the event costing around $75,000.