‘We need this type of event’: Pride Festival returns to Lexington this weekend

Organizers are gearing up for the 17th year of Pride Festival on Saturday, and expect this celebration to be the biggest one yet.

The festival will take place from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., and will take place along Oliver Lewis Way, from South Broadway to High Street. The celebration of the LGBTQ+ community in Lexington will feature 200 vendors, two stages of entertainment and a parade, said Jason Schubert, board president for the Lexington Pride Center.

“We have 30 groups marching in the parade, from individuals to marching bands,” Schubert said. “A number of local businesses will also be participating, as well as a couple of community groups.”

For the first time, the festival will include a parade, which will kick off at 11:30 a.m. at the intersection of High Street and Oliver Lewis Way, then will continue down to Patterson Street.

Parade viewers can line the roughly half mile route along Oliver Lewis Way. Once the parade is over, Schubert said, the Pride Festival officially kicks off with a welcome announcement on the Lexington Pride Festival main stage around 12:15 p.m.

Running until 9 p.m., the festival will have more than a dozen food booths and several different beverage booths, including West Sixth Brewing with beers, ciders and non-alcoholic beers, with other alcoholic beverages available from Crossings and Suntory Spirits.

There will also be vendors from across the state, and Kentucky American Water will provide free water for Pride Festival attendees. People are encouraged to bring their own reusable water bottle to use to reduce waste.

Entertainment on the Lexington Pride Festival main stage, presented by Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government and 250Lex, and the Red Mile Stage will feature live music, drag queens, drag kings and other performances throughout the day.

While Pride celebrations in other cities have seen some cutbacks this year, the Pride Festival in Lexington is going strong, Schubert said.

“For us, it’s gotten even stronger,” he said. “We have more sponsors and more vendors this year. While we have had some sponsors who have said they’re not sponsoring parades or festivals this year, they’ve been able to sponsor us in other ways.”

Sponsorships and funding from both the Lexington Fayette Urban County Government and from the 250Lex Commission have helped the celebration move forward, he said.

The 250Lex Commission has worked to celebrate Lexington’s 250-year history. As part of that, an exhibit from the Faulkner Morgan Archive entitled “Queer, Here, & Everywhere: The Roots of Kentucky’s LGBTQ History” will be on display.

The exhibit, first shown in the Lexington Public Library, showcases the importance and history of the queer community in Central Kentucky.

Made up of eight double-sided panels, the exhibit will move to the festival grounds for attendees to see. The panels highlight not only the LGBTQ+ community in Lexington, but across Kentucky, including two men who are thought to be the first gay couple in the area.

Robert Craddock and Peter Tardiveau fought alongside each other in the Revolutionary War, then moved to Craddock’s home, the Hermitage in Bowling Green, where they lived out the rest of their days together.

The two men were buried next to one another after they died in the 1830s, with a headstone engraved with the words “Comrades in Arms.”

Schubert said the festival gives those in attendance the opportunity to show members of the LGBTQ+ community their support.

“It’s really been an exciting opportunity for us. Every year we have something exciting and new, and this year is no exception,” he said. “We have amazing volunteers who are really excited about this event being in Lexington and always come with new ideas. It feels like we need this type of event in the community.”