Lady Shabazz, organizer of the annual Starlight Cabaret, says the show's move to the Civic Center is prompting creative ways to wow the crowd during Pride’s unofficial ‘closing ceremony.’
Signature Sundays close Pride Fest with a bang Parade, Starlight Cabaret traditions change things up
'Girls going all out' in new venue for Starlight Cabaret
The Starlight Cabaret is the traditional closing event of Atlanta Pride, but organizers of the annual drag cabaret hope people remember that the spirit of drag has been at the forefront of Pride since the beginning.
“The whole Pride, Stonewall and all of that, was started by drag queens,” says Wild Cherry Sucret, a member of the Armorettes and part of the board of directors for the Starlight Cabaret.
“It’s kind of cool to see Atlanta Pride include that aspect as well, since drag led the revolution,” Sucret says.
The Starlight Cabaret kicks off at 8:30 p.m. on July 6 at the Atlanta Civic Center. Like much of Pride, it undergoes some major adjustments due to the venue change for this year’s festival. For the first time in its history, the show named for its usual skyscape takes place indoors and charges a small cover fee of $2 to $5.
“I hope people won’t let that deter them,” Sucret says. “We could have still done it outside, but we thought, we have this facility right there, why not be comfortable.”
The Civic Center ballroom, which boasts the largest production stage in the southeast, also is inspiring Starlight performers to put on grander production numbers.
“It’s a lot of space to work with, and I think people are stepping up their game and doing things they can’t do in a bar,” Sucret says.
The extra room will allow Starlight organizer Lady Shabazz is planning to start the night off with an explosive routine.
“You’re going to have to be in your seat at the beginning of the show, or you’re going to miss it,” Sucret says.
In her second year organizing the cabaret, Shabazz says organizers are attempting to make the night feel more like a concert than a drag show.
“We’re just trying to do something a little different and make it as dramatic as possible,” she says. “I’m very excited because we’ve never been able to do anything on this grand a scale before.”
The cabaret unites drag performers from across the city for an all-star Pride performance, and Lady Shabazz works to make the show capture gay Atlanta’s diversity.
“I traveled the city and went to every club and tried to contact every entertainer,” she says. “This is supposed to be Atlanta’s show, and for a while, that kind of went away.”
But now Atlanta’s drag queens, along with a handful of drag king performers, are eager to put their all into the show — flooding Shabazz with requests and inquiries about arriving from beneath the stage or rappelling from the Civic Center ceiling.
“Everybody is very excited, and all the girls are working hard,” Shabazz says in the tone of a proud mother.
“It means a great deal to me to make sure this all goes right,” she says. “It’s a dream come true. It’s a lot of work and it’s a lot of stress, but I wouldn’t give it up for the world.
“I’ll do it for as long as they’ll let me,” she adds.
The date and venue changes to the Atlanta Pride festical are keeping several of the city’s biggest drag names from the Starlight Cabaret. Personalities like Charlie Brown had already booked out-of-town gigs for the Fourth of July weekend, Shabazz says.
But for many Pride revelers, Pride wouldn’t be complete without a Sunday night trip to support the Starlight Cabaret.
“To me, it feels like it’s the closing ceremony to Pride,” Shabazz says. “Even years ago, before I started [helping organize the event], I and everybody else just knew to go to the Starlight Cabaret to close Pride.”
— Ryan Lee
Parade takes reverse route from Piedmont Park to Civic Center
The route of this year’s Pride Parade will be familiar, but marchers may get the feeling they are walking backwards. With the festival’s change in location to the Atlanta Civic Center, organizers basically reversed the parade route.
Instead of gathering at the Civic Center MARTA station and marching to Piedmont Park, participants will line up at 10th Street and Piedmont Avenue at starting at 10 a.m. Sunday morning. The parade steps off at 1 p.m. The route proceeds up 10th Street, turns left on Peachtree Street, then sashays down Peachtree to Ralph McGill Boulevard. It then turns left on Ralph McGill to enter the Civic Center festival site.
Some 130 contingents — ranging from community organizations to businesses, politicians and religious congregations — registered to march in the parade, while additional marchers will join in along the route.
Events that once marked the end of the parade will now celebrate its beginning.
Outwrite Bookstore & Coffeehouse, located at the corner of 10th and Piedmont, hosts a parade kickoff street party featuring DJ Richard Jones and DJ Alexia, starting at 10 a.m.
As in years past, Nickiemoto’s — across the street from Outwrite — hosts the Human Rights Campaign’s annual Pride Block Party. The seventh annual party, set for 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., features a brunch from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Tickets cost $50.
— Laura Douglas-Brown
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