SALT LAKE CITY — Pride Month wraps up this weekend, and if you’re looking for somewhere to be, something to do, The Gateway in Salt Lake City is the place. That’s where the second annual SLC Pride festival is happening.
Kat Kellermeyer is the entertainment director for the event and says The Gateway will be alive with the sights and sounds of Pride. “We as a community can come together, and this is just a space to celebrate all of us.”
Bonnie O’Brien is the Festival Director of SLC Pride. “It really is accessible to everyone.
So if you’re worried about a ticket price, just come to the door, there’s no cost.
And that opens the door to big families.”
O’Brien goes on to say there is special significance in having this event over this particular weekend, as it marks the anniversary of the so-called Stonewall riots in New York City. “So when you’re looking at 1969 and the original riot, which started the idea of the pride festival and coming together as a community to celebrate, that started this weekend.”
Organizers say about 10,000 people attended the inaugural event last year; they expect that number to grow this year.
This year, there will be 130 vendors, workshop and panel spaces, along with three stages featuring music and performances by local LGBTQ artists. Kellermeyer is especially proud of that. “Let them come and express their feelings and what it’s like to be a queer person here in Utah and Salt Lake. It’s such an amazing experience to be able to empower those artists with that kind of a stage and that kind of visibility here in the community.”
She and O’Brien both say many folks who attended last year said it felt like a giant family reunion. “And it’s a little bit more about community and the people that live here and seeing each other, and embracing each other and saying; we made it through another year of legislation, we made it through another year of political change, we made it through another year of so many different things that tear us apart.”
SLC Pride gets underway Saturday, and it goes from 12:00 p.m. until 10:00 p.m.
Then they clean things up, turn right back around, and open it again Sunday, 10:00 a.m. till 7:00 p.m.
