Largest ever crowd expected at Northwest Arkansas Pride weekend

Organizers expect this weekend's Pride events in downtown Fayetteville to draw up to 45,000 people, representatives with Northwest Arkansas Equality told Axios.

The big picture: "We're seeing a broader travel area than we used to," operations officer Joseph Porter told Axios, noting that people from Louisiana and the Memphis metro are expected, which is unusual. The event, attended by roughly 30,000 people last year, also draws from areas like Kansas City and Tulsa.

The latest: The 20th annual Pride celebration is amping up its entertainment with performances from Kylie Sonique Love from "RuPaul's Drag Race" and rapper Big Freedia. Previous years haven't drawn national-level talent.

• Most Pride events, including the parade, will be Saturday. NWA Equality added a transgender march in 2021 and then a festival component last year. This year's trans fest, set for Friday, also will have a larger stage and bigger party with more performers, Axios was told by Jafet Malave, president of the board of directors for NWA Equality.
• In addition to reminding people that trans people are targeted by legislation and violence, organizers want the festival to be a party and celebration of trans people, Malave said.
• Some of the advocacy work at the trans fest will focus on suicide prevention in the LGBTQ community and will honor Nex Benedict, an Oklahoma nonbinary teen who died of suicide in February.

State of play: The Pride festival starts at 11am Saturday; the parade down Dickson Street begins at 5pm.

• The festival has 97 vendors, while the parade will feature 125 entries.
• A youth zone with arts, crafts and story times will be 11am-3pm at Fayetteville Town Center.
• A sold-out party called Glitterville will go until 2am at George's Majestic Lounge on Dickson.
• A 21-and-up pool and dance party will conclude Pride weekend, beginning at noon Sunday at the Mount Sequoyah pool.
• See all events .

Between the lines: No official Pride events are happening at Walton Arts Center for the second straight year after the venue refused to continue hosting the festival's youth zone, citing "safety concerns for performers, patrons and staff due to the divisive political rhetoric at this time."

• The move led to protests and at least seven resignations from the center's 23-person board.
• "That continues to remain unresolved," Porter said.

The bottom line: The event is for visibility and "to show that we are here and we're not going anywhere. We are citizens and residents and people, and you have to respect us and acknowledge that we are here," Porter said.

• Malave and his partner moved to NWA from Washington, D.C., three years ago for a career opportunity but struggled with the idea of living in Arkansas, given its reputation as not being inclusive toward LGBTQ people , he said.
• Malave said attending the Pride celebration in 2022 was when the couple realized they could make a home in NWA.

If you go: Organizers recommend carpooling or using a rideshare service, plus taking heat-related precautions. The festival will have water stations.