Louisville Pagan Pride Day's 6th Year, 2011
With a cool 40 degree start, the 6th annual Louisville Pagan Pride Day began to take shape in the pre-dawn darkness. Many veteran vendor and info booth participants went right to work, setting up in record time in the smoothest startup we've ever had. There was a strange lull of activity caused by River Road being blocked by a charity "walk", preventing some of the vendors and volunteers access to the amphitheater. Fortunately, the "walk" cleared shortly after 10:00AM. The opening blessing was on time at 11:00 (Thanks Benvo!), and a steady stream of visitors flowed in from both check-in booths. This was the first year we had many event signs (Thanks Jim & Gail) out front, and I think this helped balance the flow of people into the event to both entrances.
Everything was on schedule- performances, rituals, workshops and announcements all went on with clocklike precision, and made my job as emcee seem effortless. The Warrior blessing was well attended, and Baoku Moses rocked the place with a drumming performance that had people on their feet and dancing on the stage. "Art After Dark" wowed the crowd with a fire poi performance, and the Autumn Harvest ritual (hosted by Coven of the Blessing Moon) was 70 people strong and a very moving experience, with many chants and singing parts done thru the PA system for all to enjoy. Teardown and cleanup was the quickest ever, and I left around 9:00PM.
The official entrance count was 493, with around 100 "bypassers", bringing the total to +- 600 atendees. 535 pounds of canned goods were donated to "Dare to Care", and $115 of cash donations for next years LPPD was collected. 18 items were donated to the silent auction and raffle, and had good participation for the size of the crowd. I gave interviews to 3 television stations (WDRB, WLKY, and WHAS), and 2 of them aired the segments on their latenight newscasts. CNN picked up the WDRB footage and added it to their religion news blog.
It was the smoothest, most well executed event yet, and was due to the best staff and volunteers in LPPD history! Many, many thanks to all the hard working people that pulled this all together, AND MADE IT LOOK EASY!
Brightest Blessings to all!
Mike Avery
LPPD coordinator
Everything was on schedule- performances, rituals, workshops and announcements all went on with clocklike precision, and made my job as emcee seem effortless. The Warrior blessing was well attended, and Baoku Moses rocked the place with a drumming performance that had people on their feet and dancing on the stage. "Art After Dark" wowed the crowd with a fire poi performance, and the Autumn Harvest ritual (hosted by Coven of the Blessing Moon) was 70 people strong and a very moving experience, with many chants and singing parts done thru the PA system for all to enjoy. Teardown and cleanup was the quickest ever, and I left around 9:00PM.
The official entrance count was 493, with around 100 "bypassers", bringing the total to +- 600 atendees. 535 pounds of canned goods were donated to "Dare to Care", and $115 of cash donations for next years LPPD was collected. 18 items were donated to the silent auction and raffle, and had good participation for the size of the crowd. I gave interviews to 3 television stations (WDRB, WLKY, and WHAS), and 2 of them aired the segments on their latenight newscasts. CNN picked up the WDRB footage and added it to their religion news blog.
It was the smoothest, most well executed event yet, and was due to the best staff and volunteers in LPPD history! Many, many thanks to all the hard working people that pulled this all together, AND MADE IT LOOK EASY!
Brightest Blessings to all!
Mike Avery
LPPD coordinator
