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Cville Pride Prepares Its 7th Festival

Preview events for the seventh annual Charlottesville Pride Festival began over the weekend.  WMRA’s Marguerite Gallorini reports.

Last year, the Pride Festival attracted more than 8,000 people. And this year, twice as many vendors are participating, according to Amy-Sarah Marshall, the founding President of the Charlottesville Pride Community Network.

AMY-SARAH MARSHALL: People just want more and more and more! [laughs]

This is a pretty big feat, considering how the festival is put together:

MARSHALL: This is all volunteer-led, this is all based on sponsors, this is all based on community support. Everybody's welcome to perform: for us it's about the community celebration.

Expect a week of family-oriented events, business cocktail hours, karaoke, and two free movie screenings: Moonlight, and Weekend.

MARSHALL: Because of all the events last year with August 12, I think our area has become aware of how important it is to be visibly supportive of things that we believe in, and not just assume everything is fine. We still do have a lot of work to do, we still do have a lot of youth, especially, who face just higher levels of mental health issues. So that's why we keep doing this.

The festival itself happens Saturday between 11am and 7pm at the Sprint Pavilion - with shows, performances, and competitions.

Marguerite Gallorini was a feelance journalist for WMRA from 2015 -2018.