PORT ANGELES — A High Heel Run will kick off the Girls’ Night Out shopping event Thursday, an annual event timed to coincide with the Esprit Gala, a weeklong conference for transgender individuals that began Sunday.
The High Heel Run will be at 4 p.m. outside the Red Lion Hotel, 221 N. Lincoln St., where the Esprit Gala is based.
Then, 22 downtown businesses will offer sales, special events, refreshments and prize drawings for the next four hours.
A fashion show originally set for 8 p.m. has been canceled for lack of participants.
Also on Thursday in connection with the gala will be a free Peninsula College Esprit panel talk from 12:35 p.m. to 1:25 p.m.
The panel will speak in the college’s Little Theater at 1502 E. Lauridsen Blvd.
Four to five transgender participants of the Esprit conference will participate in the discussion, led by Karen Williams.
A question-and-answer session is planned afterward.
For more information, email Kate Reavey at kreavey@pencol.edu.
Major public events of the Espirt Gala are the World Famous Esprit Talent Show and concert performances by two bands: The Nasty Habits and The Fabulous Boomers.
The talent show, which will be open to the public, will be at 8 p.m. Friday in the Elks Lodge ballroom, 131 E. First St. Admission is a $5 donation.
Talent show entries will include Esprit attendees and local residents who are associated with the convention.
Nasty Habits is a Seattle-based transgender band that plays punk, glam and pop covers from the 1980s and ’90s.
The group’s performances are not technically part of the Esprit convention but have been scheduled in conjunction with the convention for several years, said Esprit Chair Suzanne Adams.
The band performs from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday at The Metta Room. Tickets are $10 each day.
Nasty Habits performances are open to the public.
Classic rock ’n’ roll band The Fabulous Boomers will play at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Red Lion Hotel, Adams said.
Admission is a $5 donation to Volunteer Hospice of Clallam County. Adams said Esprit has donated more than $50,000 to hospice, which provides free hospice services to terminally ill patients.
Most of the events at Esprit are private, for attendees only.
The keynote speakers for the Saturday luncheon will be Seattle Police Officer Jim Ritter; Knight Sor, deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Justice; and Carol Russo, regional director of the Rocky Mountain Regional Office of the Department of Justice Community Relations Service.
The luncheon is for attendees and by invitation only, Adams said.
For more information about Girls’ Night Out, see the Port Angeles Downtown Association Facebook page.
For more about Esprit, see www.espritconf.com.
