Mandy McPherson talks Puerto Vallarta Virtual Gay Pride 2020 success. Gay PV Travel Guide spoke with Puerto Vallarta Virtual Gay Pride 2020 event organizer Mandy McPherson to discuss the tremendous success of this event. Interview date July 16 2020.
Hello Mandy, Thank you for taking time to speak with us at GAYPV. You just finished the very first successful Virtual Puerto Vallarta gay pride 2020. Congratulations and great job to everyone for a great event ! Tell us the overall feedback and your thoughts of the week. Thank you for giving some time and space to this, after all the proverbial glitter has hit the floor! The week of Puerto Vallarta Virtual Pride Week was an absolute success. My perspective from here in Alberta, Canada was that it was well attended, smoothly run and showed the beautiful diversity we have as a community.
How many participants did you have? We had over 60 unique shows/performances, with well over 100 different people involved.
Any idea of how much was raised for the performers? A lot! We are working at gathering that information over the next week or two.
What were the most popular events during the week? There were a few very popular events. If I was to say via the amount of views per event it would be Mama Tits and the Underwires: Beyond the Rainbow, Antropology: Poledance, Virtual Drag Derb: Allstars, Happy Hour at Apaches and La Noche LIVE all had the highest viewership.
Who do you need to thank for their help? Is everyone a good answer? I will begin at the beginning. I proposed this idea to my friend Geoff of Apaches Martini Bar, he then asked a few other LGBT business owners if they would be interested and this because what we now lovingly call the PVVP Focus Group and consists of Bryan and Roger of Anonimo, Paul of Hotel Mercurio and Christopher of La Chachalaca. Through them I quickly teamed up with Green Strategy ORM who generously volunteered probably 100 man hours to PVVP, if not more and Joss Siva Public Relations who took on translating, graphic design and more. These were the core players. It doesnt stop there! After a couple weeks of pre planning, the event began to pick up momentum and Paco Ojeda and Gary Green became keys to the success of the virtual aspect with their varied knowledge of streaming, virtual events and more! Saul Acevedo who was our week long emcee and on the ground correspondent was a gift! LONDONOGRAPHY for volunteering to capture moments to remember. Brandi Knepper came on board to help with coordinating the different virtual swag bag giveaways, too. Angiestar, you helped in so many different shows and wonderful creative ideas! One of the biggest hits being the Virtual Drag Derby: ALLSTARS was a gigantic success thanks to Dan Houze of BC LIVE Productions, who donated their entire team to help. There are more so, so many more. The community of PV, the viewers, every single performer and business owner, the press, the help of Gay Guide PV, and I could go on and on and on.
What happened that you didnt expect to happen? That’s a tough one! I truly didn’t have any expectations. We went into this thinking that pride celebrations needed a platform in Puerto Vallarta and it had to be online. We knew that many businesses also needed to raise funds to help subsidize and supplement their staffs and ever mounting bills with the lack of income due to closures. We knew the community needed connection. I guess what we didn’t expect is that the community as a whole was immensely positive, helpful and truly worked together. We shared knowledge, equipment, ideas and supplies. It really was overwhelming to see what kindness and connection can bring out in a community.
What would you do differently? What would you do differently next time? Next time we will very much start planning earlier, we will lean into the virtual concepts now that we understand how many people want to join Pride in PV but for a variety of reasons, cannot be there physically.
Will you do this next year? YES!.
What will the fundraising be like for next year? That is tough to say. We will always be community minded, so lets see what is needed next year!
Who will benefit from the fundraising? Hopefully very much the same as this year. The viewers get the experience, the performers and businesses get the exposure and the community gets the sense of unity.
Mandy also says that part of this years fundraising will be the production a coffee table book of photographed memories of Virtual Pride this year. This will be a collective effort of Jennifer London of LONDONOGRAPHY and Mandy. They will be working on this project over the summer and proceeds will be donated to SETAC Community Center. What a great idea so stayed tuned for more details on that!
Will you choose the same dates? Likely no, but close to the same dates as this year.
Traditionally gay pride events have a pride parade. Will there be a parade next time associated with your event? If we can, we will!
Do you foresee any other physical events or are you totally virtual? That is yet to be seen. There are some longstanding traditions that were in place long before this, we would like to see some interfacing but we respect the years of hard work those events took to build. You never know, maybe next years Puerto Vallarta Pride events will be bigger than anyone could imagine!
The Puerto Vallarta gay Pride 2020 originally scheduled for May was cancelled due to Corona Virus. Mandy organized a very successful grass roots event gathering much support from the local community and a massive event schedule. Gay PV is excited for the success of Puerto Vallarta Virtual Pride 2020. See all the videos from the Virtual pride week 2020 here.
The wonderful pride photos are courtesy of Jennifer London, owner/photographer, LONDONOGRAPHY.
