Logan’s annual Pride Festival has outgrown Willow Park and after years of celebrating it there, the Logan Pride Foundation hosted the festival on Center Street last week.
The festival featured over 80 vendors, including local artists, performers, businesses, and churches all showing up to support the LGBTQIA+ community in Cache Valley.
“This has been a really big event for us to be able to have our youth out in here and seeing everybody in the community showing support, celebrating who they are, and actually having them be the center of attention, and being like, 'Yes, we love you, we want you here, this is for you,'” said Kelsey Crowson, the director of Cache Valley Pride.
Crowson said that having the event on Center Street turned a lot of heads, and brought in a wide variety of people, many of whom didn’t know that Cache Valley hosted a Pride festival.
"It's been kind of cool to see different people from what we typically would see at the same location, just because we're in a different location, actually having a little bit more access," Crowson said. "I've been seeing a lot of people drive by and have their heads turned and been like, 'Oh, what's going on over there?' And so they've been stopping by and coming in and been like, 'I've never been to this event before. I'm so excited to be able to see this.' We're really happy to be able to have us front and center, like what Logan Pride kind of established here."
“Pride is truly the culmination of a community that historically has never had another space to exist in," said Chad Call, executive director of the Utah Pride Center.
Bella Sanchez, the granddaughter of the owners of Logan’s Mexican Rose Rock Shop, ran their booth for the entirety of the festival.
“We’ve been doing this for as long as we’ve been open, which has been two years," Sanchez said, "but I think this has been one of my favorite events to do. The people here make the culture incredible, and it really represents what Logan, Utah really is. I think Pride really showcases the beauty of humanity.”
According to the Logan Pride Center, this year’s festival welcomed an estimated 6,000 people, doubling their attendance in previous years.
The Logan Pride Center hosts events every day of the year, and encourages anybody in the community to attend. For more information, visit loganpride.org.
