This page was written in 2010 to explain some forthcoming changes and plans to our events. We’re leaving it up for historical relevance, but you should check out our specific event pages for more recent details.
[edited to add the above statement June 2012]
Why are you making changes?
We love the way that Pagan Pride has grown over the years. Twin Cities Pagan Pride is one of the larger Pagan Pride events in the country, with varied and fantastic programming, entertainment, and vendors.
However, we’ve gotten away from one of the essential goals of the Pagan Pride mission: offering education about Paganism to people who aren’t already seeking the Pagan community. We also have some concerns about conflicts with other major events in the area in the fall, and with the long-term financial sustainability of our existing event model.
To change this, we intend:
1) To move to an outdoor fall festival (probably in a park) in 2011. This will continue to be called Twin Cities Pagan Pride
2) To create a self-supporting spring conference (beginning in spring 2011) that will continue the great tradition of varied and complex programming that brings the community together for discussion and learning. We’ve chosen the name Paganicon for this event, to echo the name many people give our community (Paganistan).
We expect that both events will continue to include vendors, entertainment, and other activities in some form. 2010 is a transition year between our previous model and our new one: we hope you’ll bear with us through these changes. We always appreciate help, ideas, and volunteer assistance!
Why were we in a new location in 2010?
Changes in management at our previous location (Sabathani Community Center), the overall cost of the event, and planned changes in the focus of the fall event lead us to look for other space options. We decided on Lake Harriet Spiritual Community for this year due to the combination of substantial walk-by traffic, contribution to a Pagan-friendly space, and enough room for a smaller version of our recent events as we transition to the new model. Some of you may remember past Pagan Pride events in Lake Harriet (we were there in 2000 and 2001.)
Lake Harriet Spiritual Community’s building is less accessible to people with mobility challenges than we’d like. The event page has more information about the specifics.
What are your plans for the fall event beginning in 2011?
Beginning in 2011, we see our fall event as a one-day free event held in a public park with good walk-through traffic. It will likely include:
- Vendors
- Information tables from community groups and resources
- Entertainment
- One or two public rituals
- Programming aimed at educating the general public about the many faces of Paganism (in one programming space.)
- Children’s events
- Food drive and donations for a charitable cause
We would aim at a date in late August or earlier September, to get a better chance of good weather while staying in the Pagan Pride event window. While we recognise that this time of year is very busy for many people, we hope that the spring conference will be a good alternative for anyone whose calendar is overbooked in the fall.
What are your plans for the spring conference?
We hope to create the same kind of successful conference that Pagan groups have offered in other parts of the country. You can find out more about our plans on the Paganicon pages.
How does the for-pay event fit with Pagan Pride International’s mission?
Twin Cities Pagan Pride’s 501(c)3 status as an organization is independent from the Pagan Pride International organization. We remain committed to offering a free fall event in line with Pagan Pride’s requirements (a fall harvest ritual, donations to a food shelf and charity, education and press releases to the public). However, we specifically wrote our own by-laws and documentation to allow us to hold additional events in line with our focus if we wished, as we felt that a time to split the deeper community-centric programming from the public education mission might be coming.