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Sunday, Oct 12, 2008
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Bend-It offered venue for Queer youth during Pride Weekend |
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| Bend-It offered venue for Queer youth during Pride Weekend | |
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Gay Pride was very disjointed this year. But there was something offered for everyone. The Bend It Queer Youth Festival at The Vera Project catered to a historically underrepresented group of the Gay culture. The normal format is to have it the weekend before pride, at different locations. This year, due to extenuating circumstances, Bend-It planned to utilize all of the Vera space, located on the backside of the Seattle Center, for the whole festival. The Vera space was well equipped for performances and workshops. I was surprised at the turnout given the turmoil; the crowd was much larger then was anticipated. There were probably many reasons given the great line up and workshops offered throughout the day. Overall, the festival was awesome. The workshops were fun, but the Queer musical performances were near inspiring. The beautiful work of such local artists at Chris Riffle, Cat Biell of Lucy Bland, Little Party and Bad Business were sincere and emotional. Your Heart Breaks and the headliner, Tender Forever, were wonderful, intelligent, and engaged the crowd with their numerous shenanigans, including a cardboard lab top performance by Tender Forever and a staged long distance "I miss you because of the distance" phone session by Your Heart Breaks. If you haven't heard their music yet, you are truly missing something. Colby B was on the turntables keeping the energy going between sets. The planning this year was difficult for so many reasons, it didn't really start until very late, when Michael Yuasa of Antarctic records and Matthew Steele came in to help with the music. I am looking forward to next year's festivities, which will benefit from the involvement of more people, and a year of planning. The Bend It Festival is important because it creates a space for Queer youth to congregate who otherwise have no where else to go. Both with inspiring workshops, creative entertainment, and community support by the likes of Vain Hair Salon, Verbena, Neumos, Chop Suey, and The Rose Bud; Bend-It was no doubt the place to be on Pride Weekend 2007. Courtesy of Bend-It |
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