If you missed last year's Pride in the 'Burg festival, you have a second chance to

experience some of the highlights of the five-day event. A gala premiere of the film "Everyone's United," which recaps the 2006 festival, will take place tomorrow evening at James Monroe High School in Fredericksburg.

     "The five days was an event that has never been seen here before," said Rob Tanner, a founding president of Fredericksburg Pride, the nonprofit group that sponsors the festival. "It's amazing and exciting to see efforts that we worked so hard for last year captured on film."

     Paul Jason McDowell of Resurrection Studios in Fredericksburg taped the event. The premiere will feature a 15-minute segment that shows clips of the Fredericksburg street festival, the annual Pride Ride and the festival's headline performer, Jade Esteban Estrada. He is a comic, singer, actor and dancer whom NBC News has called "America's Prince of Pride."

     The film segment also showcases "AIDS on Stage." The event, created by the 14- to 18-year-olds of the Religious Youth of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, fosters awareness of HIV and AIDS services and prevention efforts in the youth community. The video also includes interviews with principal organizers and many who attended the festival.

      In addition to the film debut, jazz and blues musician Roddy Barnes will perform live onstage. Barnes routinely performs with popular Saffire artist Gaye Adegbalola, and has played at previous Pride festivals. Other featured artists will include hip-hop singer and former "American Idol" contender Josh Kelly, blues singer Joshua Myers of King George, and blues and pop singer Michael Jackson Jr.

     The black-tie-optional event is free, and food will be served. DVD copies of the filmed festival will go on sale after the show.

     Pride festivals are held annually in cities around the world--some on the anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall Riots spurred by a police raid of a Greenwich Village gay bar. The reaction to that raid is considered by many to have been the beginning of the gay liberation movement.

     Pride in the 'Burg began as a boat cruise on the Rappahannock River in 2002 and has since expanded to become a five-day event.

©2007 Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star