Two years ago, Seattle Pride, a Northwest Tradition for over 30 years, moved from what used to be the center of gay culture in Seattle, Capitol Hill, to the heart of downtown Seattle. What used to be a small community event has turned into a huge regional event, with hundreds of thousands of people lining the streets downtown to watch the Parade and tens of thousands attending the Pride Festival (now called PrideFest) at the Seattle Center. The move has been a very successful one and helps to give more prominence to the second largest gay community in the United States.

Last Year, One Degree Events took over the Festival with 6 weeks to plan and execute a major festival, and they were successful. Major music talents like Inaya Day, Reina, and Abigail took to the stage to entertain the crowds, local activists talked about our political successes and challenges, and hundreds of local businesses and non-profits got a chance to talk about their work and products to what some see as the perfect demographic - LGBT folks between 25 and 44 (with lots of folks on either side of that demo, as well). Over 20,000 people attended last year's Pride Festival, and they celebrated together, enjoyed a beautiful Seattle day, were inspired by the activists, and ultimately helped to raise nearly $10,000 for underfunded community non-profits.

With a year to properly plan and execute this major Arts & Cultural Festival, One Degree is now working to produce a bigger and better Festival. Seattle Out and Proud, the producers of the Parade, are the most strategic of partners, but One Degree has many key alliances within the gay non-profit and business communities to pull off an even more exciting event and raise more money and awareness than ever before.

Situated a couple hours away from both Portland and Vancouver, B.C., Seattle Pride has quickly become a regional event (and it falls between the Pride dates for those two cities as well). With a bigger and better festival in 2008 and sponsors already signed up to support the event, Seattle PrideFest will once again put Seattle on the map. One Degree will be handing off PrideFest to a new non-profit, The Pride Project, sometime in 2008. In the meantime, One Degree will continue to refine its mission, expands its programming and fundraising, and ramp up to put on PrideFest 2008. We hope to have you have on board to support the largest LGBT gathering in the Pacific Northwest.

One Degree Events is the largest LGBT events company in Seattle. While we've only been operating under that name for a short time, our Executive Producer, Egan Orion, has been producing events in the community for the past four years, including three years of Pride parties. Through events at the old Timberline, Sugar, Neumo's, Chapel, Element, Level 5 and other places, he's proven himself as one of the leaders in gay nightlife in the city. One Degree is the producer of the local Tribe and EPIC parties as well as the monthly party BBAR at Baltic Room.

The Pride Project was established in 2007 as a Washington State non-profit to prepare it to take over from One Degree as the producers of PrideFest. As the transition happens, the Pride Project will be responsible for entertainment/speakers/djs for PrideFest08 and will also be running the beer gardens and PrideFeast. Board Officers include Thomas Schmitt, Sam Galano, Richard Wall, and Scott Daniels. The Executive Director is Egan Orion. TPP is currently applying to be a 501c3 organization so that contributions will be fully tax-deductible.

The Executive Producer for One Degree Events and PrideFest is Egan Orion, a Northwest Native and a longtime Seattle resident. With a work history ranging from Starbucks barista to Cruise Boat steward to Microsoft blue badge, Egan has had a variety of experience that has led him to this point in his career. A graphic designer for eleven years now, Egan moved into event production a few years ago when he noticed a lack of "spice" in the local nightclub scene and thought he might be able to do something to infuse it with some new energy. He is supported by a terrific part-time team but who are without a doubt full-time in their support of One Degree Events and Seattle PrideFest.