The Akron Pride Festival kicked off its 10th anniversary in grand style Aug. 22 with its annual Equity March that stretched from the former Spaghetti Warehouse parking lot up Main Street to Cascade Plaza downtown.
Leading the march with colorful pride flags was the Collage Pride Guard, a group of performers featuring flag, rifle and dance choreography. The group, helmed by Barry Artis, was celebrating its fourth year in the Akron Pride Festival Equity March.
The Collage Pride Guard is an extension of Collage, a competitive color guard founded in Akron 38 years ago.
“Diversity is a big part of our organization. We welcome people from a very diverse background and it’s a place for them to be themselves without being judged, without feeling fear of any type of negativity,” Artis said. “It’s just a very welcoming, open environment and we felt that that fit in well with the mission of the Pride Festival.”
A total of 129 groups registered for the march, with the groups reporting nearly 3,000 participants, said march chair Lucas Barstow.
Brian Lamoda-Genet, who has been the festival chair since 2023, said he was expecting this year’s festival to draw the largest number of participants and attendees yet. On Friday night, the Akron Pride Festival 5K drew a record 377 runners.
“We’re expecting a lot more people here than in past years. You can just see this like sea of people here. It’s going to be amazing,” he said just before the march started. “Everyone is here to have a great day, and they keep us going each year.”
Lamoda-Genet stressed that Akron’s Pride Festival hosts a march, not a parade with floats or vehicles. The festival will continue to have a march until full equality and equity has been achieved for all LGBTQ+ people, the organization’s website explains.
Lamoda-Genet referenced the first pride events that were held on the one-year anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York, which occurred in response to a police raid on the Stonewall Inn tied to anti-LGBTQ policies and attitudes.
“We will always march,” Lamoda-Genet said. “We march until we’re all one.”
Akron Pride Festival a time for celebration
Akron Mayor Shammas Malik, who participated in the march with his reelection supporters, talked about the importance of the festival’s milestone 10th anniversary.
“I remember the very first march down to Hardesty (Park) from Highland Square and it’s amazing to see how it’s grown,” he said. “This is a beautiful day, a beautiful celebration.”
Julie Beckert, festival co-chair, said the first Akron Pride Festival in 2017 drew 6,000 attendees and this year’s was expected to draw about 47,000.
“It’s just a commitment from the community,” she said.
As march participants made their way down Main Street, they yelled out “Happy pride” to onlookers, who responded in kind. Those who marched with Malik handed out pride flags to onlookers.
Parade participants dressed in all sorts of vibrant costumes. They included Preston Reynolds, who wore a blow-up parrot costume with a tall, Carmen Miranda-style hat depicting fruit, and Mike Benzick, who wore a coordinating chicken costume with a foam cowboy hat.
The men, who are from Cleveland, decided at the Cleveland Pride Festival more than a year ago that they needed to up their game with their costumes. They found their novel looks online.
Others in eye-catching attire included a festivalgoer in an Uncle Sam costume and one dressed as the Statue of Liberty, whose gown said “Love is love” and “Drag is not a crime.”
The march traveled through a large group of vendors and organizations lining Main Street. Vendors, food trucks and other groups also lined Bowery Street. The festival also featured a full lineup of entertainment at the Equity Stage on Bowery as well as the Lock 3 Stage, where singer-songwriter Grace Oddo performed as the march finished.
Performances were to continue until 10 p.m., with headliner Todrick Hall singing for the finale. Akron native drag entertainer Discord Addams also performed among a lineup of local dancers, musicians, theater groups and other drag artists.
A new element for the festival was the pet-friendly Drinks & Disco Dogs at Lock 4, where four-legged pets could hang out with their owners and enjoy an interactive photo booth and pet parade. The Lock 4 venue also featured Pride-themed drinks.
Theme for Akron Pride Festival is home
This year’s Akron Pride Festival theme, home, is an important one for Akron native Jeffrey Fulvimari. The event is a homecoming for this freelance illustrator, who moved back to Akron in December after moving away in the early 1980s.
Fulvimari designed the artwork for the Akron Pride Festival posters, T-shirt and more, inspired by the home theme. He is a 1980 graduate of North High School who studied art at the Cleveland Institute of Art and then Cooper Union in New York.
“When I left in 1980, if you were gay and you lived in Akron, you really had few choices. You could hide, unfortunately commit suicide, or you could leave. It was really extreme. No one said the word ‘gay,'” he said.
His high school friend, Jeanne Tassiello Jordan who works for Lock 3, introduced Fulvimari to the Akron Pride Fest leadership team and his work creating illustrations for the event grew organically, the artist said.
On Aug. 22, Fulvimari was wowed by the sheer scale of Akron Pride Fest.
“Now things are so much better” in Akron and throughout the nation, he said.
“I can’t even believe this,” he said of the festival. “It’s amazing.”
Fulvimari was proud to sign prints and posters of his Pride Festival artwork at Lock 3, where the festival was also selling T-shirts. The festival also plans to continue selling the artistic merchandise online.
Arts and restaurant writer Kerry Clawson may be reached at 330-996-3527 or kclawson@thebeaconjournal.com.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Thousands have lot of pride in Akron Pride Festival downtown
Reporting by Kerry Clawson, Akron Beacon Journal / Akron Beacon Journal
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By Kerry Clawson, Akron Beacon Journal | USA TODAY Network
