Springs becomes a sponsor of the summer diversity festival

City leaders Tuesday gave permanent support to a summer festival that's intended to combat a nationwide reputation for hostility to minorities.

The Colorado Springs City Council's vote to sponsor the "Everybody Welcome" festival was a dramatic shift from less than a year ago, when some council members debated withholding city support because of participation by gay-oriented groups.

Council members Darryl Glenn and Margaret Radford worried that participation by gay groups would add a political dimension to the event. Councilman Tom Gallagher said at the time that anti-war groups could turn the event into a political rally.

Those council members withdrew their concerns and voted to sponsor the event last year. On Tuesday, the council unanimously voted to continue city support this year and in the future.

The festival will "show what Colorado Springs is really all about," said Jay Patel, co-chairman of the Colorado Springs Diversity Forum, a group of business leaders and activists that's putting on the event Aug. 22 and 23.

City sponsorship means the government will waive fees of $6,800 for police services, $3,320 for renting Acacia Park downtown, City Auditorium and a mobile performance stage, and $4,750 for street barricades borrowed from Colorado Springs Utilities.

The city sponsors about 10 similar nonprofit events annually, such as the Pikes Peak or Bust Rodeo Parade and the Colorado Balloon Classic.

Members of the Diversity Forum sought city support last year but said they would go ahead even without it. The forum began a few years ago when business leaders including the Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce said they wanted to counter the city's reputation for intolerance.

The reputation dates to 1992, when state voters passed a measure authored in Colorado Springs that denied legal protections based on sexual orientation. Some celebrities and politicians responded by calling Colorado the "hate state." The U.S. Supreme Court struck down the measure in 1996.

The festival is named for a sign on the Cotton Club, a popular nightclub during the 1950s and ‘60s where owner Fannie Mae Duncan defied a city culture where blacks and whites rarely mixed.