OLYMPIA, Wash. – Organizers of the Capital City Pride festival and parade say that their 20th anniversary festival in June is gearing up to be their largest. Today, they announced that they have signed R&B recording artist and Broadway star Shoshana Bean as their entertainment headliner. Bean is an Olympia native.
Festival chairman Tony Sermonti says that this year’s stage show is professionally produced and will feature national entertainers. “We are incredibly excited and lucky to have Shoshana headline this year, she will be a big draw,” he said.
Other entertainers feature singer and dancer Xavier Toscano from San Francisco and Jade Jericho. Sunday’s headline is a cabaret in the park with ‘Saul Tannenbaum and his friends of Dorothy.’ The lineup will also feature a special 20th anniversary concert by Pacific Northwest musical theatre actors.
The group also announced the 2011 grand marshall, Jim Fouratt today. Fouratt has appeared on the Colbert Report, is an author and a survivor of the 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York City, where he lives today.
Fouratt will present two lectures in the Olympia area prior to the Pride festival and will attend the Pride kickoff event on Friday, June 10.
The pride festival with a beer garden, food and vendor booths, and a kids area runs both Saturday, June 11 and Sunday, June 12 from 11 to 5 p.m. The parade takes place Sunday at noon starting from the state capitol building through downtown Olympia to the festival grounds in historic Sylvester Park.
For more information: www.CapitalCityPride.net
