Tucson Pride

The southern Arizona festival features a variety of entertainment in a new venue.

By Laura Latzko

Bunny FuFu

On Stage

Entertainment varies from hip-hop to southern rock

Tucson Pride will have a new venue when the event is staged on Oct. 15 at Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium.

Karon Bohlender, president of Tucson Pride, said that the festival has been moved to a new location to accommodate the growing number of festival attendees.

Bohlender said that more than 5,000 people attended in 2010. When the festival started in 1977, 50 people came together to celebrate at Himmel Park.

This year, the festival will include a drag tent with performers from Tucson and Phoenix.

Drag queen Bunny Fu Fu, also known as Mark Fetgatter, will be an emcee at Pride for the eighth year in a row and perform at the festival for the 15th year.

Fetgatter, who grew up in Tucson and now lives in Phoenix, said that as an emcee it is important to keep up the crowd's energy level. "The role of the host is to keep the show going and to keep the crowd engaged in any way that you can," he said.

Here's a roundup of the festival entertainers.

Boys R Us

The Tucson-based gender-performance troupe with 11 members, has been performing at Tucson Pride festival since 2009.

Dante Celeiro, executive director of the group, said that the troupe will get attention with their sexy and funny performances. "There's a chemistry that we have that when we get on stage, something happens," Celeiro said. "It's hard to explain ... If the chemistry's not there, it's not going to work."

The troupe of drag performers will be on stage with the Human Project, a local hip-hop dance crew.

God-Des and She

The hip-hop and soul duo from Austin, Texas, features rapper God-Des and singer She. The duo first attended Tucson Pride in 2008 and filmed their video for the song "Love Machine" in Tucson. They appeared on Showtime's The L Word.

God-Des and She

God-Des and She is a rarity in the hip-hop rap scene as an out LGBT hip-hop duo that is out about their sexuality.

Their style differs from other duos because their musical influences include Prince, Salt & Peppa, Run DMC, 2Pac, Biggie and Whitney Houston.

Whiskey Rodeo

The band that bills itself as "the soundtrack to the American buzz," is kicking off its Across State Lines tour with its second appearance at Tucson Pride.

The Flagstaff-based band plans to engage the audience with antics from the stage.

Band member Greg Francescon said that although members of the band are straight, they enjoy playing gay pride events in Tucson and other cities because of the positive support audiences offer musicians.

He said the group will play original songs that speak to universal struggles. "Everyone takes something from what we sing and makes it personal to them," he said.

Corday and the Cougars

The Long Beach, Calif.-based lesbian southern rock band has won awards such as the Best Live Band award at the Orange County Music Awards and the Video of the Year award from the LA Music Awards for their video for "Pie."

Lead singer Jennifer Corday's song "Coming Undone" was featured in the movie Elena Undone.

Corday said that the band tries to engage audiences by mixing originals with riffs from classic rock songs. She said the band plans get the crowd clapping during the song "Redneck Lesbo," a parody of "Redneck Woman" by Gretchen Wilson.

Corday said that she feels that events like Tucson Pride allow the band members to express themselves in a more honest and open way. "It is fun when we can share and enjoy these gay events when we are all sisters."

Other performers

Lisa Otey, a blues singer from Tucson who was inducted into the Arizona Blues Hall of Fame in 2011, will perform with Tucson-based jazz and blues singer Diane Van Deurzen.

Other performers include Roll Acosta, an acoustic musician and singer from Tucson who performs with drummer Andre Gressieux and string guitarist Kevin Frederick, and Jimmy Roland, an R&B and soul singer from Los Angeles.

VITAL STATISICS

Pride in the Desert
11 a.m.-8 p.m. Oct. 15
Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium
2500 E. Ajo Way, Tucson
Tickets: $10 in advance ($11 online), $15 at the door
www.tucsonpride.org

Parade honors those who work with HIV/AIDS projects

To recognize the 30th anniversary of HIV/AIDS, Tucson's Pride on Parade has named grand marshals who have committed themselves to helping individuals living with the disease.

The parade will be Oct. 8, one week before the Pride festival, set to coincide with Second Saturdays, a monthly event in downtown Tucson that includes street performers and musicians, artists, live concerts and street vendors.

The grand marshals are:

Wendell Hicks,: executive director of the Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation (SAAF), an organization that helps people with HIV/AIDS with programs for medical treatment and housing, outreach services and education.

Dr. Heather Moroso,: a neuropathic surgeon and the founder of Positively Beautiful, an organization that offers people with HIV/AIDS makeovers and help healing psychologically and emotionally.
Moroso said that erasing the stigmas and stereotypes surrounding HIV/AIDS have kept her motivated. "The face of HIV is constantly changing. Everyone is at an equal risk of contracting the disease," she said.

Scott Blades

Scott Blades,: co-founder and executive director of Tucson Interfaith HIV/AIDS Network (TIHAN), an organization that seeks to educate faith organizations on how to serve the needs of the HIV/ AIDS community and provides care services.
Blades said he and others are still part of the fight because they care about helping people living with HIV and working to prevent the virus from spreading. "It's the people who keep me doing it, both the people who are still here and the people who came before them," Blades said.

Jeffery Scott Brown

Jeffrey Scott Brown,: a Tucson activist who has served the HIV/AIDS community working with organizations such as TIHAN, SAAF and Wingspan, Tucson's LGLBT community center.
"We have to remember that we are all in this together," said Brown, who was diagnosed with the disease in the '90s. "The best thing we can do is enjoy ourselves, love each other and make a difference."

VITAL STATISICS
Pride on Parade
8-9 p.m. Oct. 8
Congress Street between South Sixth Avenue and Stone Avenue, downtown Tucson