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Rain gave way to sun as up to 6,000 people attended the ninth annual Jersey City LGBT Pride Festival on Aug. 29.

Grammy-nominated and Billboard chart-topper Fredrick Ford, Kelly King, Houston Bernard, whose video for "I Feel Gorgeous" was number one on Logo for five weeks and Puerto Rican vocalist Janid were among the more than dozen performers who took the Jersey City State. And hometown DJ Fred Pierce spun beats that brought the crowd to their feet.

In addition to the entertainment, the Hard Grove Café hosted an after party on Christopher Columbus Avenue and Grove Street that featured dancing and dinner long into the night. More than 65 merchants also hawked their wares.

Rob Dickar, communications director of Jersey City Lesbian and Gay Outreach, declared to EDGE the event was a success. He said he feels it once again gave Jersey City’s LGBT residents a chance to celebrate itself and the city’s diversity.

"What makes us unique is we have our festival on the waterfront with a view of Manhattan," Dickar said. "The LGBT community is very diverse, just as Jersey City is itself diverse; lots of languages spoken, and a strong Latin, Middle Eastern and Indian cultural presence. It’s a very cosmopolitan area, because it’s so close to Manhattan. There’s a growing artistic community - much of the resurgence of Jersey City has been led by the artists."

Those artists, whose work could be seen on the entertainment stage and in the vendor booths, led to what Dickar declared (in hindsight) to be "one of the best entertainment events we’ve done.

"The co-emcees, (drag queen performer and original Miss Gay New Jersey) Tyler Alexander and Drag King Stephon Royce were spot on," he said. "Kelly King was phenomenal, dynamic."

Among the vendor booths, the Garden State Gay Bowling Organization created a minor tizzy with its well-received improvised bowling lane where passersby could attempt a strike by rolling a coconut down the lane to hopefully hit ten pins made out of pineapple tops.

Governor Jon Corzine was unable to attend the festival because he was at the late-U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy [D-Mass.]’s funeral in Boston. His running mate, state Sen. Loretta Weinberg, however, spoke about the extension of marriage to same-sex couples. She further promised the ticket would fight for women’s rights and the "rights of women to have mammograms without being wealthy."

The crowd applauded Weinberg’s comments because of her long-standing record in support of LGBT rights in New Jersey. She wrote the domestic partnership bill that the state Senate passed in 2003.

"She was not just a politician making a speech," Dickar said.

Two Jersey City City Council members also issued proclamations to event organizers.