SALISBURY, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) – For 6 hours, people in the LGBTQ+ community and their allies spent time together in Salisbury at their 10th annual pride festival.
This event is deemed one of the largest in the state and it showed as an estimated 5000 people came out to enjoy love and happiness.
In this small section of Salisbury — there was a lot of love for the last full weekend of pride month
“It’s growing every year,” says Heather DePalma-Spivey, a Salisbury Pride Board member.
“It’s incredible, the downtown businesses, the city council, I mean everyone is just — and even more every year, we get more support,” she said.
“Rainbows and Stuff” is one of the 120 vendors who came to support the festival. Owner Kenny Proehl says he drives to five different states from Amherst, Virginia to celebrate the anniversary of pride. This time he drove four hours to be around people who looked and felt like him.
“The camaraderie, the family, togetherness, being in the community, who accepts who you are and doesn’t look down on you,” Proehl said.
Festival-goers and their dogs also enjoyed live entertainment on two different stages performing various Carrie Underwood songs… and ‘Patio Furniture’, a known Drag Queen in the LGBTQ community.
“This is actually my first pride event, I’ve been out since I was 18 and this is the first year and I’m 36 now,” Jessica Touart said.
She attended the festival with her family, including her aunt, who just came out a few years ago.
Organizers say they did have more security — after the Supreme Court’s ruling on abortion rights — and recent threats against pride events.
“It’s very upsetting, I really don’t feel like there should be anybody that should tell me what decisions I can make about my own body,” says her aunt Belinda Clark.
They added more Salisbury police as well as their own security to ensure people felt safe while having fun.
“We have what we call peacekeepers, if we do have any protestors, they kind of hang out with the protesters to just make sure that the protestors are able to exercise their rights, just like we’re able to exercise our rights,” said DePalma-Spivey. “So, we have more peacekeepers this year.”
Organizers are planning for 6000 people for next year since it continues to grow every single year.