By Amy Roth –
The Pride Parade and Festival in Aurora is back on again less than a week after its cancelation. Mayor Richard Irvin of Aurora announced Tuesday afternoon standing next to Chuck Adams, executive director of community advocacy group Indivisible Aurora, organizer of the event.
The announcement came during the mayor’s press briefing at City Hall. It will be the second time the parade has been staged in Aurora. Organizers canceled the June 8 and 9 event less than a week earlier because of the high cost of security measures which have been instituted.
Attending the press briefing was Mirna Lopez-Rivera, vice president of the Aurora Puerto Rican Cultural Council, who said the 2019 Puerto Rican Festival parade was canceled because of rising costs required by the same new city ordinance that originally caused the Pride Parade to be canceled. The festival, set for July 27 at RiverEdge Park, has been cut from two days to one.
The cost of barricade rental and security for the parade were reasons Lopez-Rivera gave for the cancellation.
The Puerto Rican Cultural Council is a “grassroots organization that has been in existence for 47 years,” Lopez-Rivera said. She added that the group decided it would rather give money toward scholarships than pay for the costly new security measures.
After hearing the announcement that the Pride Parade will go on, Lopez-Rivera said similar help from the city government should be offered to the Puerto Rican Cultural Council.
Irvin said that the city government would help Indivisible Aurora “cast the net far and wide” to raise $17,000 to cover its part of City services, including police personnel and security fencing. Adams said donations are being accepted through a Go Fund Me campaign. Nearly $10,000 had been raised just Tuesday this week.
The City has pitched in $3,000 in neighborhood festival funds, and Aurora Downtown is making a $1,500 contribution, to leave Indivisible Aurora with the task of raising $12,400. Contributions Tuesday were added to the Go Fund Me campaign. Adams said Indivisible Aurora has until Tuesday, April 30 to raise the needed funds.
• Following the press conference, City of Lights Ukulele Festival organizer Todd Von Ohlen addressed City Council members during their Committee of the Whole meeting about the same new ordinance which requires private parade organizers to pay for dump trucks to be parked at both ends of street closures.
The ordinance was passed by the City Council in January. It passes the costs for public safety along to private event organizers.
This year’s Ukulele Festival is set for August 25 in the parking lot across the street from City Hall. Some other venues, including the new Wally Mundy Park adjacent to The Venue music performance space and near the Water Street Mall, may be utilized for the fest.
Sixth Ward Alderman Mike Saville is the event’s founder.
“It makes no sense blocking off streets using dump trucks,” Von Ohlen told aldermen, adding that the probably of an attack involving firearms is much higher than someone driving a vehicle into a crowd.
Von Ohlen said the Ukulele Fest will go on, although organizers are discussing cost-saving measures, including foregoing beer sales. He said they will be “working harder on corporate donations.”
A link to the Go Fund Me page for the Aurora Pride Parade is below: