The Big Rapids Pride festival will take place on Sunday, June 28, from noon to 8 p.m.
This year, the festival theme is fearless and free: Better than ever. The theme acts as a call to action for a community to come together and not to let their voices be diminished, no matter what is happening in the world.
President of Pride Big Rapids, Janiza Sawyer-Ocasio, has been with Big Rapids Pride since it started in 2021. She spoke about how this year’s festival will be different from previous years.
“We are doing things a bit differently this time around. This year, we’re still going to have our afternoon and evening drag shows, but this year, we have invited a couple of spoken word artists,” Sawyer-Ocasio said.
The spoken poetry event by Derek and Gleason will include reciting their poetry onstage, while being accompanied by a piano.
This year, the festival welcomes a new headliner band, VenusEnvy, an all-female group that sings songs from different decades as well as original songs.
“A lot of their members attended our gala earlier this year, and they invited us to one of their performances during the Festival of the Arts,” Sawyer Ocasio said. “Their theme for the night was women’s rights and activism, so a lot of their songs were about women’s empowerment and fighting against the system. Their message was really powerful, so we thought, let’s shake things up and invite them to perform at our Pride festival, and they agreed.”
The festival will include a variety of different vendors from local businesses, as well as operations from the northern Michigan area.
Big Rapids Pride is hoping to invite back the Big Rapids High School choir to perform for the festival’s kick-off. The choir performance would be composed of queer kids and their families, similar to years prior.
“We lost touch with them, unfortunately, but we are hoping to bring that experience back. We really appreciate having that part of the community get involved with the festival,” Sawyer-Ocasio said.
Other events that Big Rapids Pride is hoping to include in this year’s festival include a talent show. Where they would open up the stage to acts that are signed up to showcase local talent. The goal is to expand the number of showcases at the festival to match the vendor crowd of local operations wanting to get involved.
Those who are interested in sponsoring the Pride Festival, volunteering, or simply getting more information about Pride Big Rapids can visit their website: https://www.pridebigrapids.org/ or contact them on social media.