Seattle PrideFest will celebrate its 19th year of dazzling events on June 28-29 on Capitol Hill and at Seattle Center. But nationwide sponsorship challenges have taken ahold of many LGBTQIA+ Pride Month festivals, including this one. As a result, it has launched a GoFundMe fundraiser specifically for its security team and the local artists.

Last month, San Franscico Pride announced a loss of $300,000 from sponsors dropping out, and Seattle Pride more recently announced a significant funding gap due to the same reasons. Seattle PrideFest has seen a loss of $75,000 since April 1, and is facing a loss of about one-third of its sponsorship funding, which is approximately $225,000.

The fundraising goal is $75,000, and as of this writing, there were three donations totaling $500. According to GoFundMe page, it takes hundreds of thousands of dollars to throw these large Pride Month events, which includes paying performers. Egan Orion, executive director of Seattle PrideFest, told the SGN that they generally have 100–150 local performers, and are still conducting bookings.

The increasingly hostile political climate and targeted attacks against the LGBTQIA+ community creates the need for strong security, which will cost at least $50,000 for this year's PrideFest.

"We've been ahead of the curve on our security measures for our events and continue to provide a well thought-out plan with multiple partners to ensure the safety of our attendees," Orion said. "Beyond that, we don't talk about specific measures, though vehicle denial has been an especially important piece of our security plan now for three years running."

This year's Seattle PrideFest theme is "More Rainbow." According to the GoFundMe page, "Those who are fighting against our community want us to go away or dim our light, but we aren't going anywhere or dimming anything. We want more diversity, more color, MORE RAINBOW."

Despite several sponsors pulling out of this year's Seattle PrideFest, Orion said others are filling in the gaps, and the list continues to grow. Some sponsors include Delta, Whiteclaw, Smirnoff, New Belgium Brewing, Seattle Cider, Regence, Dublin Law Group, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, QFC, and C89.5 radio, among others.

Visit Seattle PrideFest's GoFundMe here or learn more about sponsorship opportunitieshere.