June 25, 2023 / By mobanmarket
SARASOTA, FL — The PRIDE | Be Fabulous Music & Arts Fest by the Fabulous Arts Foundation in Sarasota takes place Saturday, 3 to 10 p.m., at Fogartyville Community Media and Arts Center.
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The event — formerly known as the Harvey Milk Festival — offers live LGBTQ+ musical acts from throughout Florida, keynote speakers, artists and vendors.
Musical acts include Southland Band, The Tilt Orchestra, Proud Miranda, DJ DaliGanja, Optimistic Presence, MeteorEYES and headliner Palomino Blond.
The event also features community leaders as keynote speakers and an interactive installation from the Soap Box Project to encourage activism and inspire people to vote in the 2024 election.
The festival also features the opening of a new drag culture exhibit on display in The Ringling museum’s community room. The drag history timeline and exhibit, a partnership with the Stonewall National Museum made possible thanks to a grant from the museum, will be on display until July, Shannon Fortner, FAF’s president, told Patch.
“It’s not a large space but the timeline is very interesting,” she said. “To have an institution like (The Ringling) hold space for this is amazing.”
Performer Lindsay Carlton-Cline will be at Saturday’s opening event, which takes place 5:30 to 8 p.m., at the museum.
“She’s been performing here since 1978,” Fortner said. “She’ll talk about Sarasota’s drag history and give us the back story on some of the clubs in Sarasota and the performers who are no longer with us.”
The display was originally planned to coincide with the organization’s first Drag Culture Fest, which was initially planned for the end of 2022 but will now take place later this year.
Tickets for the PRIDE | Be Fabulous Music & Arts Fest are $5 in advance and $7 at the door.
Profits from the event will be used to open a new LGBTQ arts center in Sarasota. The organization is hoping to move into a small space in the
“We broke it down into two phases,” Fortner said. “Phase one is to find an immediate space to have as an arts center, Then, we’ll launch a capital campaign and a five-year plan for a larger space.”
The initial “microspace” will serve as a community center and performance venue. FAF will also use the space to build out its planned art therapy pilot program.
“We’re known for this festival and other events, but we want to have a permanent home so that we have a little more intention with the work we do on a year-round basis,” Fortner said. “We have these annual events in place but want to hold space for folks year-round.”
It will also allow the organization to build better partnerships with other businesses, nonprofits and initiatives in the area.
“Without walls, it’s been really hard to control that side of partnerships and really have a true partnership with other organizations,” she said. “It will be nice to step that up a little more and start working together for the community.”
One of FAF’s goals is to focus more on mental health, Fortner added. “I think we need the space for that now more than ever, really.”
Donations can be made to the Fabulous Arts Foundation for its planned LGBTQ+ arts and cultural center, as well as its community programming, here.
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