PrideFête bringing Caribbean LGBTQ+ culture back to Wilton Manors

PrideFête will bring Caribbean culture — tailored to an LGBTQ+ audience — to Wilton Manors on Saturday, Aug. 12, from 6 to 11 p.m.

Staged at Richardson Historic Park & Nature Preserve, the event will feature music, food, art, DJs, drag queens, local queer performers, Carnival drummers and masquerade performers.

“We’ll have cultural food (and) all different types of music that represent the Caribbean, from soca to kompa, and there’ll be masqueraders, which are basically the Carnival costumes that you see with elaborate colors and feathers,” says Jameer Baptiste, events manager with HOTspots Happening Out, the festival producer. “Really what we’re trying to give the community, that we’ve noticed they want so much of, is the music, you know — just time to dance and have fun.”

New this year will be an interactive educational display.

“We have a map that people can actually engage with, where they can put an indicator of what Caribbean country they’re from. And that also gives an opportunity for people that are looking at it to say, ‘Hey, I didn’t know that was in the Caribbean,’ ” adds Baptiste, who also helped organize the My Hollywood Pride festival in January.

Usually, most Pride events take place in June, commemorating the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City, a pivotal moment in gay and lesbian history. But most of the past iterations of this Caribbean LGBTQ+ festival have taken place in May and August.

“We were the ones that produced Stonewall Pride in June, and it’s such a big undertaking that we can’t really place anything else close to that date,” Baptiste says. “And then we have other events throughout the year, so this was a perfect fit for us.”

A great deal of attention went into curating vendors that represent the LGBTQ+ community and appeal to Caribbean attendees, Baptiste says.

“One thing that we’re really trying to hone in is bringing more cultural vendors in, but there is that block, and this is why the festival was so necessary. There isn’t that connection between the LGBTQ+ community and the Caribbean community, so it’s not that easy to get cultural vendors to be at the festival,” Baptiste says. “However, we still have a good representation of our community, like nonprofits and health organizations … Not many people in the Caribbean and the Black community get to know all the resources that we have in our community, and this provides a unique opportunity where the two can blend together.”

This is the second year the festival will be produced by Hotspots! Happening Out, best known for Hotspots! magazine. Previously called Caribbean PrideFest, the event was organized by the Fort Lauderdale-based SunServe social services agency from 2015 to 2018 and by Pride Fort Lauderdale in 2019. There were no festivals in 2020 and 2021. To ensure institutional knowledge, organizational members from previous festivals sit on the current committee.

“This is quite a unique event for two reasons: One, it brings so much of the Black community to Wilton Manors, which you normally don’t see. And Wilton Manors is so welcoming and enthusiastic about producing and helping to produce an event that brings a demographic to the community that normally isn’t there,” Baptiste continues. “Wilton Manors is predominantly white male-attended, but this festival reaches out to women as well. We had as many women as we did men last year, and we want to keep that going …

“This is all about having fun, you don’t have to be Caribbean,” Baptiste adds. “You could really just be an admirer or someone who has no idea what Carnival is and come and experience it with us in a safe space where everyone can enjoy.”

IF YOU GO

WHAT: PrideFête: An LGBTQ+ Caribbean Festival

WHEN: 6-11 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 12

WHERE: Richardson Historic Park & Nature Preserve, 1937 Wilton Drive, Wilton Manors

COST:

• $7 during online pre-sale (ends at midnight Aug. 11) and $10 at the gate

• VIP admission (five drink tickets, hors d’oeuvres, indoor air conditioning access) is $85 online (also ends at midnight Aug. 11) and $100 at the gate

INFORMATION: Call 754-333-0740, email moreinfo@pridefete.lgbt, or visit pridefete.lgbt.