GRAND HAVEN, Mich. — Grand Haven’s first-ever Pride Festival kicks off on Saturday June 10 at noon at Waterfront Stadium. Festivities will include a drag show, drag-queen bingo, a dance party with DJ's and a final show at the Musical Fountain.
However, that Musical Fountain show will sound different than what its producer, Brad Boyink, had in mind.
Boyink provided redacted emails to FOX 17 stating that he was approached about doing the show, considering he’s put together shows in the past.
In an email he sent to the Musical Fountain committee in late April, he outlined the playlist for the Pride Fest show, which included original songs and remixes of ‘I’m Coming Out’ by Diana Ross, 'We Are Family' (a remix), ‘Believe’ by Cher, ‘Born This Way’ by Lady Gaga, and ‘The Show Must Go On’ by Queen.
However, in an exchange of emails dated on May 2, the committee found issue with one of the songs for being too explicit.
Boyink shared with FOX 17 his original post on Facebook, stating the committee found the Lady Gaga song to be "too overt", citing the lyrics "No matter gay or straight, or bi', lesbian, transgender life."
They recommended that 'Born This Way' be switched with an Elton John song.
In the Facebook post, Boyink said he's glad the Pride Fest is coming to Grand Haven, but also expresses disappointement that "select individuals choose to impose their own beliefs as to what you should think 'family-friendly' is."
The City of Grand Haven released the following statement to FOX 17 on Wednesday afternoon:
“The City of Grand Haven welcomes and supports the Pride Festival planned for our waterfront on Saturday June 10th.”
“There has been a mutual misunderstanding regarding the City’s ability to program a special show after the Pride event for the Grand Haven Musical Fountain. Based on legal advice on speech content regulation from the City Attorney’s office two years ago, the City discontinued a process through which members of the public could request individual songs or special programs for a Fountain performance.”
“This decision was not reduced to formal written policy or effectively communicated to Musical Fountain Committee members or members of the public, a fact that will be remedied in the near future. But the policy against accommodating special requests is a sound one in the current legal environment, and the decision to follow the policy was made at the City level, not by volunteer members of the Musical Fountain Committee.”
“We hope everyone will enjoy the planned event at Lynn Sherwood Waterfront Stadium, and stay for the regularly scheduled Musical Fountain performance that follows.”
FOX 17 reached out to the Musical Fountain Committee, requesting interviews, and are waiting to hear back. Wednesday afternoon, they posted the following statement on their Facebook page, which read in part:
“Please note that the committee never voted for or against a Pride Show. Per our last committee meeting, the committee was informed we could not approve special shows.”
“Prior to the social media postings, we had recognized that there would be a Pride Festival in the Waterfront stadium and purposely planned to play a song list that catered to the events being celebrated. The Musical Fountain Committee discussed this list of songs with members of the Pride Festival event at our last meeting and we were excited to work with them to find an alternative option. While they were not the songs listed in the previous posting, we thought we had found a great way to celebrate while abiding by the policy currently in place by the city.”
The city and the committee statements say the show will go on and the Pride Festival will cap off with a performance at the Musical Fountain.
