By RYAN SKAITH
St. Joseph Pride Fest will return in June this year at Civic Center Park.
For the past several years, the St. Joseph Pride Festival has been held in September. President of the St. Joe Pride Board, Kenny Crawford says,
"We moved it to September because we were having trouble competing with some of the bigger Pride events in Missouri and we thought the weather wouldn't be as hot. We became members of the Missouri State Pride Association and they try to space out the state festivals as much as possible. The last weekend in June was open this year for our area so we moved Pride Fest back to Pride Month like the community wanted."
The event will again be held at Civic Center Park behind City Hall, because as Crawford indicates, "We outgrew Coleman Hawkins Park which was an exciting problem to have. Last year was our first year at Civic Center Park and we had more vendors and entertainment than we've ever had."
Crawford adds that the local Pride Festival is expected to be bigger this year. "We've already got vendors signing up and I've had entertainment groups contacting me for the last four months wanting to perform."
Some of the activities surrounding this year's event include three local bands performing, a Pride Parade, and live drag entertainers.
Crawford emphasized, "We had so many positive comments about how excited people were last year for our drag entertainers and how talented they were. We'll also have our regular drag shows as well."
St. Joseph Pride Fest will take place June 26 and 27. The parade will be held at 2:00 p.m. on June 27.
For more information, follow St. Joe Pride on Facebook.