The organizers of this year’s Eugene Pride Festival say their earlier concerns about parking and public safety have mostly been resolved.
Eugene Pride will be held in Alton Baker Park on Saturday. Organizers expect to draw around 12,000 attendees.
Planners for this year's event have said they've faced new logistical challenges, as parking they'd employed in previous years was instead reserved for a sold-out concert at the nearby Cuthbert Ampitheater.
At a City Council meeting last month, members of the public criticized the city government, arguing it hadn't prioritized the local LGBTQ+ community.
Since then, Eugene Pride Board President Brooks McLain said the city has taken additional measures to help Pride, such as providing more space for on-site parking.
“We definitely are feeling supported," said McLain, "and are really grateful for some city staff who are working extremely hard to make this go off without a hitch.”
McLain said parking at Alton Baker Park itself will still be reserved for Pride staff, disabled attendees, and carpools of four or more people.
However, he said the Lane Transit District is providing free bus passes, and there will be shuttles running approximately every 30 minutes from several locations across town.
The listed pick-up spots are at the East Autzen Stadium gravel lot, Lane County's Serbu Youth Campus, the Valley River Center, the 4J School District headquarters, and at 7th and Willamette.
Meanwhile, McLain said organizers have coordinated with the Eugene Police Department, and will construct a physical perimeter around the event. He said this will allow Pride to enforce a code-of-conduct against potential anti-LGBTQ+ protestors.
"If folks breach those agreements, we can now have our security team escort them out of the festival into an area where they can visibly protest outside the festival entrance," said McLain. "But they won't be able to kind of disrupt the operations of the festival any longer."
McLain said the perimeter will make it easier to gather donations upon entry, helping offset the additional transportation costs that Pride has taken on this year.
"This is something that we've created essentially in the last three weeks as a way to run the festival," he said.
The band set to play at the Cuthbert on Saturday, Ween, announced Monday that it was cancelling its Eugene show, along with their other remaining West Coast tour dates. The venue has offered refunds, and scheduled a Ween cover band in its place.
McLain said he expects this switch-up to open up more spots in the park, but Pride organizers aren't planning to significantly change the event's parking rules in light of the news.
