A River City Pride Festival Parade walker fires off a glitter cannon over everyone’s head, drawing cheers from the crowd Saturday afternoon.
Organizers anticipated about 4,000 attend throughout the day. It’s already a busy weekend in downtown Evansville with the Jehovah's Witness Conference and comedian Nate Bargatze at the Old National Events Plaza, and of course, the River City Pride Festival.
Cloudless 90 degree heat bathed the parade route in sunlight, and many participants are flapping pride fans in the heat.
Ashley Riester is River City Pride Board President, whose pronouns are they/them.
“The goal for River City Pride festival and parade is to create a safe and inclusive and exciting and joyful and vibrant environment for our community to come and celebrate who they are and who they love,” they said.
Riester said this is achieved through a lot of community support — including several corporate donors. Many major cities have pride parades, but this is only the third in the city’s history.
Still, Riester said the pride movement is arriving at just the right time.
“I think that now's the time — and we've got the community support, we've got the employer and regional employer support,” they said. “So this is the perfect time for us to be a part of the community.”
The event started with a parade at noon, the festival lasting until 10 p.m. Following the parade, was live music, and a drag show featuring A'keria C. Davenport who competed on Ru Paul’s Drag Race.
Many large local employers like Deaconess and Toyota participated in the parade.
“We love to see the representation,” Riester said. “And I know that employees love to see their employers represented out here. It just makes them feel more seen and taken care of and heard.”
River City Pride was founded in 2019 by members of the LGBTQIA+ community.
Regarding all those letters — if you’re confused or unfamiliar — Riester said it’s best to do some research, and have a dialogue with a member of that community.
“We're used to educating the people around us, we're used to having those conversations,” they said. “I think that if there's ever a question, or you're not sure, I think that it's always appropriate to ask, what are your pronouns? How do I communicate with you? How would you like me to communicate with you, that's the more polite way to do it. And I think that as a society, we're getting better at that.”
But for the record, they mean, “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex ally or asexual plus queer.”
Riester said post-event estimates were of about 5,000 attendees. They said the festival began in Hayne’s Corner, which was quickly outgrown with more than 1,000 attendees.
“We knew that as an organization, we needed to become bigger and better,” Riester said. “And so we've moved down here to Main Street.”
The first Main Street event was in 2022. During COVID-19, the event was held virtually.
On Main Street, the organization has the benefit of extra parking, space for public restrooms and a calm Sensory Room in River Kitty Cat Café.
Riester said the next pride event is Pride Night at the Otters game on June 11, when a drag queen will throw the first pitch. Riester said a newly formed rainbow chorus will perform the national anthem.
A “rainbow chorus” is a choir composed of the LGBTQ and ally community.
There will also be a pride giveaway for the first 300 guests.