After 20 years creating free, inclusive events for Palm Springs, longtime coordinator bringing her passion to Pride ⋆ The Palm Springs Post

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Jasmine Sullivan-Waits at her desk at Palm Springs City Hall, where she worked for 20 years before accepting a new role at Palm Springs Pride earlier this month. (All photos courtesy City of Palm Springs)

When Jasmine Sullivan-Waits started her long career with the city of Palm Springs as the VillageFest Coordinator in 2005, Palm Springs largely shut down in the peak summer months.

In the 20 years since, the city has become a nearly year-round destination, and VillageFest’s original purpose of drawing visitors to add Thursday night to their weekend trips to the desert nearly seems quaint, now that throngs of tourists are visible on Palm Canyon Drive on weekends and weekdays alike.

Sullivan-Waits has been with the city through all those changes, eventually moving into the special events coordinator role and playing a vital role in countless Palm Springs events. She left her position with the city earlier this summer, and was recently named the new executive director of Palm Springs Pride.

Throughout her tenure, she prided herself on creating free and inclusive programming, a commitment she says she’ll bring with her to Palm Springs Pride.

“I have loved, absolutely loved my career at the city. I worked in the best department that the city has. Our whole intent in the Department of Parks and Recreation and my division of special events is creating fun and exciting spaces for people to want to come to,” she said.

Joy Brown Meredith, founder of Crystal Fantasy in Downtown Palm Springs and president of Main Street Palm Springs, has worked closely with Sullivan-Waits on VillageFest and other downtown events over the past 20 years. She described her as “one of the most dedicated people I have ever worked with.”

“She really cares about Palm Springs and the people of Palm Springs, and she’s so receptive to any comments or changes or ideas that just help make everything run a lot smoother,” said Brown Meredith. “She really cares about the businesses downtown, and that has just been such a plus for us to have somebody like her to work with.”

*Successfully coordinating the city’s multiple annual parades was a key part of Jasmine Sullivan-Waits’s job in Palm Springs. Here she can be seen at a past Festival of Lights Parade.*

While Sullivan-Waits’s role with the city eventually expanded beyond just VillageFest, she remained heavily involved with the weekly street fair, one of the longest-running arts and crafts festivals in the country. It also remained one of her favorite events and unique for its longevity.

“One of the reasons I love it is it hasn’t changed very much,” she said. “VillageFest has really stood the test of time.”

Other favorite events include Breakfast with Santa, which Sullivan-Waits implemented during her tenure and is particularly proud of because the event is free to families.

“When you’re able to fundraise to cover an event so that all people, all families, can come to the event, that for me is always my goal,” she said. “I don’t want the cost of something to prohibit someone from participating.

“I would say maybe 95% of all of the community events and programs that I put in place, I always created them so that they were free to the community.”

Similarly, Sullivan-Waits was proud of the expansion of the city’s July 4 event from a single-day fireworks show to multiple free events spanning a couple days, including movies and concerts in the park and a pool party.

That focus on free events could also be a challenge at times, especially during economic downturns.

“When things get tough, (Parks and Recreation) is one of the first departments where funding is pulled from because to some people, it feels like parks and recreation is a bit of a luxury, not a necessity,” Sullivan-Waits said. “But when you work in parks and recreation, we find it a necessity because we take care of our smallest citizens,” including through programs like Mommy and Me and toddler classes.

*Jasmine Sullivan-Waits rides in a recent Palm Springs Pride Parade. On Sept. 1 she’ll start as the executive director of Palm Springs Pride.*

“Multiple times I found it challenging to continue to provide the level of service that the city of Palm Springs deserves with minimal funding,” she said. “I’ve always been very supported when I’ve brought things before our directors. Somehow they’ve worked out even during challenging times.

“We may have had to curtail things back a bit, but we always provided what the city of Palm Springs deserves in terms of events and programs.”

While working at the city, Sullivan-Waits also spearheaded efforts to move Palm Springs Pride downtown in 2014, allowing the event to switch from a ticketed, stadium venue to free programming. Annual attendance in the years since has skyrocketed from around 12,000 to over 200,000 people.

“I just love that I am able to take my work from the city and repurpose it and work with Palm Springs Pride on their goals,” she said. “I’m really honored that they chose me to fill this role.”

Sullivan-Waits, who grew up in Indio, also hopes to add more Palm Springs Pride events in the East Valley “so that more people are benefitting from the exceptional work that the Palm Springs Pride organization does.”

She’s only the second woman to lead Palm Springs Pride since 1986, according to a press release announcing her new role.

“Anybody that gets Jasmine is fortunate. She knows all the ins and outs of the city and all the personalities and businesses,” said Brown Meredith. “I’m excited to see her working with (Palm Springs Pride), because it’s a great event, it really brings a lot of people into town. I just feel very confident that she will handle things in the same dedicated way that she always has when she worked for the city.”

Sullivan-Waits, who lives in Cathedral City with her partner, Meghan, and their three children, starts in her new role on Sept. 1.