Join Albuquerque Pride in laughter with Dana Goldberg, Ian Harvie and Jason Dudey! June 9, 2012 at 7PM. For more information, click here.

The 36th Annual PrideFest “Pride Links Us Together” will be June 30, 2012 at ExpoNM (the New Mexico Fairgrounds! More information will be updated periodically, including volunteer forms, vendor booth, sponsorship, and exciting new parade and march opportunities! Don’t forget to check back soon!

Vote now for your favorites in the LGBTIQ to receive an OUTstanding award! Click here to vote!

Roll out the red carpet and prepare to celebrate the LGBTIQ’s OUTstanding! Albuquerque Pride, Inc. and the Weekly Alibi are seeking nominations for the best people, business and organizations in our community! CLICK HERE for more information on nominations, voting and tickets!

My name is Miranda Haynes and I am the Vice President of Public Relations for Albuquerque Pride, Inc. I would like to take a moment to clear up any confusion regarding the date change to June 30^th for PrideFest 2012.

Our community has asked us to bring a bigger, brighter and more entertaining pride celebration to Albuquerque and we listened! When making our decision we considered 1) a date change, 2) a venue change, and 3) both a date and venue change.  We determined that a date change in 2012 would give us the opportunity to meet the needs of our community while maintaining a safe venue to grow our pride event.

The Board of Albuquerque Pride has spent many hours, days and weeks researching events throughout New Mexico and the bordering states; including contacting other event coordinators, identifying event dates, finding new and innovative elements to bring to PrideFest, and  identifying the impacts that the change may have on our community and businesses. It was important to make a change that would also promote other pride events throughout New Mexico and the surrounding states.  The date change makes it possible for you to participate in PrideFest 2012 as well as other large events such as Mudd Volleyball and Hoop It Up.  With this added exposure we can appeal to a broader audience; reaching out to more people, non-profit organizations and businesses.  We are excited for the new and great changes in store for PrideFest 2012 on June 30^th!

The date change to June 30^th will make it possible to expand PrideFest 2012 to Villa Hispania at Expo New Mexico; this was not an option with other dates in June which also added to our decision for the date change. A bigger event will meet the needs of our growing LGBTIQ community in Albuquerque. The extended space at Expo NM will also allow for a more diverse community event.

We are working with the other eight pride events in New Mexico to create “Pride Links Us Together”. With this effort, the pride organizations will come together to create a pride tour date tee-shirt. All New Mexico’s pride events will be listed on the back of the shirt and each pride event will create a unique logo on the front with the theme “Pride Links Us Together”. Starting in the month of March Albuquerque Pride will be involved in events that will allow us to promote our events with advertising, flyers, and tee-shirt sales.

These events include the following:

• OUTstanding Awards (Mar 31)
• Phoenix PrideFest (Apr 21-22)
• HIV/AIDS Walk (Apr 28)
• Albuquerque Gay Day at Cliffs Amusement Park (Jun 2)
• Los Ranchos de Albuquerque Pride (Jun 3)
• El Paso Sun City Pride (Jun 6-10 tentative)
• Mudd Volleyball (Jun 9)
• Hoop It Up! at Civic Plaza (Jun 9)
• Albuquerque Pride Comedy Showcase (Jun 9 tentative)
• Socorro Pride (Jun 15-16 tentative)
• Southern NM Pride in Las Cruces (Jun 16)
• Denver Pride (Jun 16-17)
• Santa Fe Pride (Events starting on Jun 16 to Jun 23 tentative)
• Four Corners Pride Festival for Farmington (Jun 23 tentative)

We appreciate your support in our decision and want to make it clear that PrideFest will be held at Expo New Mexico (State Fairgrounds) on June 30^th, 2012. We are currently working at creating marketing campaigns to get the news out regarding the date change and appreciate our community spreading the word as well. These campaigns will include the use of our website, Facebook and other social networking sites, television and radio spots, print and billboard ads, bus wraps and event announcements. We recently posted the date change on Facebook and have received many thanks, support and appreciation from the community; this speaks volumes to us.

Our theme for 2012 – “Pride links us together” shows that we are committed to building bridges throughout our community for both our LGBTIQ partners and our allies. We can show everyone how strong we truly are as an LGBTIQ community and look forward to some exciting ideas in collaboration with the Santa Fe Pride Board.

We welcome communication and dialogue. Our monthly board meetings are public and allow for a public forum. The dates are on our website calendar (second Wednesday of the month at 6:30 PM). Further, we respond to emails, Facebook messages and posts and have our PrideLine at 873-8084. You may also contact the executive board at executive@abqpride.com or myself directly at miranda.haynes@abqpride.com.

Thank you for your feedback, kind words and concerns. We are truly trying act progressively to enhance our community needs. We look forward to celebrating our community with all of you June 30, 2012!

Sincerely,

Miranda Haynes

Vice President, Public Relations

Albuquerque Pride, Inc.

miranda.haynes@abqpride.com