DecaFest

Conceived of as an extension of the annual GLBT Festival of Southern Decadence, held during the Labor Day weekend, DecaFest is a week-long series of cultural offerings that tie into the overall theme of fostering gay pride. “Culture, conversation and fundraising for financially-stressed gay organizations, all with heaping side dishes of fun, food and socializing,” is the way one writer described it.

DecaFest’s varied offerings include theater, film, tours, heritage, and community. Films and live stage productions will feature new works as well as those previously produced, all open to the public. There will also be guided tours of the cemeteries and historic sites of New Orleans, including those that have figured prominently in the gay rights movement. Also at DecaFest, new and emerging writers are given an opportunity to premiere their latest original works.

Most importantly, however, DecaFest helps to raise funds for charitable organizations aimed at benefiting members of the GLBT community. Chief among these benefits is the NO/AIDS Task Force, whose fundraising efforts were seriously impacted by the hurricane and its aftermath. A percentage of ticket revenues to DecaFest events is donated to groups such as the NO/AIDS Task Force and others dedicated to combating HIV/AIDS through education and treatment.

On its website, DecaFest notes that it is an occasion “to cherish and strengthen community” and “to give notice that the LGBT community is here to stay, is committed to the future, and is determined to be a vital player in the rebuilding of our city.”

For more information on DecaFest visit their website at www.decafest.org.