2018 Woodlands Waterway Arts Festival at Town Green Park
Woodlands Pride festival set for Oct. xxx at Town Green Park
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Although it is a month later than usual, the 2021 The Woodlands Pride festival is on tap and scheduled for an in-person event Oct. 30. Jason Rocha, founder and CEO of The Woodlands Pride, said after months of uncertainty about the direction of the COVID-19 pandemic, a reduction in cases and deaths from the illness has given festival organizers enough faith to schedule the event for the last Saturday of October.
Steve Gonzales, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographerAlthough it is a month subsequently than usual, the 2021 The Woodlands Pride festival is on tap and scheduled for an in-person event Oct. 30.
Jason Rocha, founder and CEO of The Woodlands Pride, said after months of uncertainty about the management of the COVID-19 pandemic, a reduction in cases and deaths from the affliction has given festival organizers enough religion to schedule the event for the last Sabbatum of Oct.
Although details are still in the works, Rocha said the 2021 Pride celebration volition be hosted Oct. xxx at Town Green Park in The Woodlands. The hours for the issue have not been gear up and Pride officials are working to finalize the festival'due south offerings and amusement.
Because of that uncertainty of whether the festival would happen or non, a September date at Town Green Park was not possible, Rocha added, explaining the late October alter.
"We want to be known as the festival on the last Saturday the finish of September, but at the time of booking, there were merely a few Saturdays left in 2021 because other events were pushed back," Rocha said. "Regardless of the date, we are thrilled to bring a festival to the LGBTQ community, and The Woodlands Customs, kind of as a pause out of COVID type of situation."
Like many other large community events, the 2020 version of The Woodlands Pride was chosen off due to the persistence of the pandemic in the fall. Every bit COVID vaccination rates increment and positive cases drib, Pride officials reassessed the potential for a festival in 2021.
"We have never really fund-raised in June, and we dropped a few teasers that there was going to exist an proclamation of a, 'coming soon' type of affair. Monetarily, it's been a very good June for (donations to) the organization," Rocha noted. "Likewise, people are just ready. Nosotros are going to follow the CDC guidelines. Safety, safety, safety is ever our priority. We hope that we can do this mask-free and hang out together. Everyone is so set up to get back to some kind of normalcy."
Festival history
The Woodlands Pride was formed past Rocha and many other supporters in spring of 2018, leading to the inaugural The Woodlands Pride Festival in September 2018. More than 2,500 people participated in the inaugural Pride event in 2018, giving the group momentum for 2019.
After the festival expanded in 2019, the largest crowd in the short two-year history of the festival showed up for a twenty-four hours of festive fun with more than than 5,000 attendees enjoying elevate performers, live music, informational booths and scores of food vendors and sponsors on hand.
The pregnant increase in attendance in combination with added Pride-themed special events at surface area restaurants, bars and hotels in the week leading upwardly to the Saturday event led Rocha and other Pride officials to lobby The Woodlands for a collaborative relationship via a "host venue sponsorship" designation similar The Waterway Arts Festival and the Ironman Due north American Championship Triathlon.
Those requests were rejected by township officials. A new "host venue sponsorship" system is now in employ later changes to the procedure were approved in 2020.
During the fourth dimension since the second Pride in September 2019, two pregnant rulings from the U.South. Supreme Court have boosted the rights of LGBTQ people.
Rocha said Supreme Court rulings that affirm LGBTQ protections have a profound event on marginalized LGBTQ youth.
"I think that simply similar all leadership, a lot starts from the top and trickles down. That comes to policy, too, which is driven by public opinion. It is kind if an ebb and period thing," Rocha explained. "Simply, if you're hearing it from the Supreme Court that certain things are OK, people showtime believing that. There is a lot of piece of work to be washed, specially with trans kids, but the whole indicate of The Woodlands pride is to educate people to normalize all parts of homo nature. We are you're neighbor who merely happens to be in the LGBT community. But, at the end of the mean solar day, we're just your neighbor."
Local back up
Rocha also said the Pride festival is a rebuttal to what he calls misinformed views of the community from some in The Woodlands, including township managing director Shelley Sekula-Gibbs.
Sekula-Gibbs created controversy in the community in June 2020 later on making anti-LGBTQ statements in response to a township proclamation affirming multifariousness in the community.
"I recall it is notwithstanding a shame that (Sekula-Gibbs) never denounced that Family Enquiry Council grouping that says the LGBT community doesn't belong and should non exist affirmed," Rocha added. "If someone on an elected board believes that, I don't believe they are qualified for their position. If you do not support all of your constituents, you lot are not doing your task."
Although the effectively details of the Oct. thirty Pride event are even so being adult, Rocha said information technology volition be different than the 2018 and 2019 events but still the best possible week of Pride possible.
"The festival itself will be different and we are working on the details. Iii months agone, this was a no-go. We take sped upwardly and ramped up into normalcy like no one expected. Equally of correct now, we will plan for two or three extra events and see how it can happen and if we tin practise a whole calendar week of Pride in The Woodlands," Rocha explained. "We are thankfully coming to terms with helping people loving their neighbors. We are seeing that in our Facebook likes and our donations. We have the will of the people behind us and that is all nosotros demand."
jeff.forrard@chron.com
Source: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/neighborhood/woodlands/article/Woodlands-Pride-festival-set-for-Oct-30-at-Town-16290759.php