MONTICELLO — Pride Month may have been in June, but supporters of the LGBTQ+ community are continuing the rainbow-colored celebrations locally into July.
Later this month, Ellison Park will once again play host to the Wright Sherburne Pride Festival, now in its second year, a fun-filled day to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community and its allies.
The second annual Wright Sherburne Pride Festival will run from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, July 20 at the East River Street park on the banks of the Mississippi River.
“Folx are encouraged to dress in their glitter and rainbows as we celebrate the fact that pride doesn’t stop,” said Emma Hamlin, director of Wright Sherburne Pride, a community group that started in early 2023, with the aim of creating connection, safety and support for LGBTQ+ people.
“This event is dedicated to promoting equal rights, as well as increasing LGBTQ visibility as a social group while celebrating sexual diversity and gender variance,” the group’s website states.
The festival will include food trucks, games, music, speed-friending and about 80 different vendors, Hamlin said.
The event is looking to grow. Last year, there were about 50 vendors and 1,000 attendees. This year, organizers are expecting even more, saying as many as 1,500 to 2,000 attendees could be crowding into the park.
Several different food trucks will be serving up good eats at the festival, she said, including Mason’s Tropical Sno, Pep Island, The Flaming Bowl and Pour.
In addition to food, there will be group activities, including lawn games.
“We will have games like bag toss and ladder ball,” Hamlin said.
One of the highlights of the event will be a unique “speed-friending event” from 1 to 2 p.m.
Similar to speed-dating, but on a platonic level, participants will be given a list of suggested conversation starters to help chat with new people. “Everyone will get a short period of time chatting with one another in hopes that attendees may find new friends,” Hamlin said.
Wright Sherburne Pride is currently working toward nonprofit status as the group develops events that cultivate the LGBTQ+ community and active allyship engagement.
The group’s first major event was the 2023 Pride Festival, which proved successful.
“Our first festival was held in Ellison Park around this time last year and we were so excited to be warmly welcomed into the community,” Hamlin said.
On its website, the group gives a brief description of what the pride movement stands for.
“This movement seeks to raise awareness in society from a positive stance on the rights of the LGBTQ community,” it states. “It works to promote safe spaces where inclusion prevails and violence and discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people are eradicated.”
Pride Month is celebrated each June in remembrance of the Stonewall Riots, when police raided a gay bar in New York City on June 28, 1969, leading to an uprising that is considered a turning point in the fight for LGBTQ rights.
“However, for folks in this community, pride is a year-long event,” the website says.
If you go
What: Wright Sherburne Pride Festival
When: 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, July 20
Where: Ellison Park, 913 E. River St., Monticello
Cost: Free to attend
On the Web: www.wrightsherburnepride.com
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