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Will PrideFest Return This June? A CONVERSATION WITH MILWAUKEE PRIDE PRESIDENT WES SHAVER BY PAUL MASTERSON
WES SHAVER
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n these uncertain times, one question remains on the minds of Milwaukee’s LGBTQs: “Will we finally return to a June PrideFest in 2022?” According to Wes Shaver, president of Pride Milwaukee, the festival’s producer, the answer is an unequivocal “yes”—provided, of course, there’s not another pandemic shutdown. Shaver joined Milwaukee Pride, Inc. in 2013 as a member of its board of directors. Since 2017 he has led the organization as its president, garnering recognition from the BizTimes in 2020 as a notable LGBTQ executive and, just last month, as one of the Milwaukee Business Journal’s “40 Under 40” honorees, an award for business professionals making a positive impact on the community. In the 1970s, Mlwaukee’s Pride celebrations took the form of dances and other small events. Largely due to the fear of outing themselves, many community members avoided such public expressions of pride, limiting attendance. The traditional PrideFest celebration as we know it goes back to 1988. Again, attendance numbers remained in the low hundreds. Media coverage, as far as there was any, usually mocked the event by focusing on its most outrageously “gay” characters.
STEPPING OUT TO SUMMERFEST GROUNDS Gradually, however, LGBTQ identity would be embraced and the festival’s attendance and recognition grew exponentially. In 1996, now a member of World Festivals, Inc, PrideFest moved to Henry Meier Festival Park (HMFP) grounds. Nearly a quarter century later, in 2019, a record breaking 45,500+ patrons celebrated at PrideFest. That year was also the most financially successful. Coming off that, according to Shaver, PrideFest 2020 would have been historic. “The PrideFest 2020 budget would have been the first million-dollar budget in the event’s history,” he said. Included in that budget was also another PrideFest first, stipends for volunteer directors. Reconciling the idea of paying production staff is easy, according to Shaver, who points out the tremendous experience and contribution they have made to the PrideFest’s success. The security director, for example, has been a volunteer since 1997 and oversees 200 volunteers. Photo courtesy of Wes Shaver.
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