The 25th annual Mid-Missouri PrideFest will take place on Saturday, Oct. 4, and Sunday, Oct. 5, at Rose Music Hall. The event is free and will host more than 150 vendors. Festival president Janet Davis views the event as an outlet for people of all sexual orientations to celebrate their identity.
“It’s celebrating everyone’s history and culture and all these important things,” Davis said.
Highlights of the event include live performances and a drag show. Junior Maddox Karnes attended the festival last year and was crowned the Youth Royalty winner in a drag competition.
“As a drag queen who’s also a student at Mizzou, it is really important that we have big, large events like this that draw both those worlds together that can combine the queer community in Columbia and also just average students going to Mizzou,” Karnes said.
Davis believes that a festival celebrating LGBTQ+ people is more important than ever in an era of social unrest.
Recent threats to same-sex marriage laws, including a formal request for the Supreme Court to revisit a past ruling, have put immense pressure on those who identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community.
Davis’s goal is to make the event a safe space where social issues can be set aside for a moment and instead celebrated.
“If we don’t show the [Trump] administration that we’re here and that we’re not going anywhere, it’s much more easy to erase [those who identify as LGBTQ+],” Davis said. “I want people to go home knowing that we stopped for a moment [and that] we took the time to say, ‘Forget what’s going on in the world.’”
Anyone is welcome to attend the event. Activities will begin at noon on Saturday.
