The tenth-annual Pride parade and festival will be held next month after being a drive-thru event the past two years.
The theme is called “10 Years OUT, Past – Present – Proud,” highlights the common shared experience of deciding to come out about one’s identity.
“I am so excited for Pride to be back to normal again. To be able to walk through the streets in the parade and then the festival, it’s going to be a happy time,” said drag show performer Aaries Judd-Sombrio. “The drive-through Pride worked, but it was hard to not have that personal interaction with people as a drag performer.”
Hilo’s first Pride festival was in 2013 when LGBTQ+ Pride, a Hilo-based nonprofit, created the event to demonstrate to the island’s young people that there were others in the community to stand by them.
This year’s Pride parade will begin at 11 a.m. on Saturday, June 25, with the festival afterward from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.
The parade will loop through downtown Hilo ending at Mo‘oheau Bandstand, where the festival will take place. Participation is free.
The festival includes drag performances, food and art vendors, and information booths for community organizations. There also will be activities just for keiki, including arts, crafts and games.
For the 10-year anniversary, Hawaii Island LGBTQ+ Pride will be celebrating the history of the organization. This will include pavilions which will display stories and images from the past 10 years as well as themes and the history of the movement worldwide.
For more information, contact Phill Russell at per8@hawaii.edu, or Beverly Tese at beverly.tese@gmail.com. Or visit the website at hawaiiislandlgbtqpride.org.