Saturday, June 3, 2023

Essex Pride Festival

at Maple Street Park

 #EssexVTPride

We're so excited to bring the first Pride Festival to our greater Essex and Essex Junction community! This will be a special place to celebrate, honor, and hold space for our LGBTQIA+ friends, neighbors, loved ones, and family. We hope you'll join us!

-The Essex Pride Committee

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The day begins at 1pm with a rainbow ribbon-cutting ceremony, followed by a walking parade through Maple Street Park. We'll kick off the Festival with Vermont's chapter of Drag Story Hour featuring Emoji Nightmare and Katniss Everqueer, and an afternoon filled with performances by local artists and musicians, including youth from Essex High School. Throughout the day, there will be vendors and local organizations, as well as a Community Canvas that we invite everyone to contribute to. We'll end the event with a joyful and celebratory dance party with GAYBAR. 

The performers

Vermont Drag Story Hour

Featuring Emoji Nightmare and Katniss Everqueer

Emoji Nightmare

Hostess with the mostess

GAYBAR

Dance Party 

EHS Cast of Rent & Chamber Choir


Rhedd Rhumm

Drag Queen

Prince Muffin

Drag King

Vermont's Freedom and Unity Chorus

tip/toe

Musician

See the Full List!

Our Sponsors & Partners

*All sponsors will also have tables at the Festival. Please say hi and thank them for helping us in this awesome celebration of queer people! 

The Vendors, Artists, and Organizations

ACLU Vermont

American Foundation for Suicide Prevention 

Audubon Vermont

Between the Willows

Bernie's Mitten Maker with Vermont Teddy Bear

Big Gay Print Shop

Brownell Library

ChubbySpaceCat Comics

Dax Dubie Art

 Essex CHIPS Teen Center

FireStyler

First Congregational Church of Essex Junction

Hazelbuds Clay Co

Heartbroken Banana

Heating Cats Pawblishing

HoneyBee Heather Art

Local Motion

Moms Demand Action - Vermont

National Alliance on Mental Illness - NAMI

Pintegration

Planned Parenthood Vermont

Sangha Studio

Sarah Bea Art

Small Business Association

Studio Fisk Aveda

Sunrise Chittenden

T-Mobile

Vermont Folklife

 Vermont Free Mom Hugs

Vermont Queer Archives

Williston Community Theater

With food from:

Maudite Poutine

Only Cannoli 

Palmer Lane Maple

Hook and Peel Pizza 

Dried n True Sweets & Treats

The Venue

Maple Street Park

75 Maple Street, Essex Junction

Maple Street Park is home to a variety of multi-purpose fields, baseball fields, a volleyball court, and other fields available for rent to individuals or organizations. Essex Junction Recreation and Parks has generously offered their large pavilion space and soccer field for the Essex Pride Festival.

Accessibility Information

The Festival pavilion is accessible by a flat, dirt, walkway and is about the length of a football field from the entrance. Maple Street Park has two areas for accessible parking - one at the entrance near the basketball courts, and another at the main Park entrance. There will be some seating available, with park tables, park benches, and bleacher seating throughout the area, but we also encourage you to bring your own preferred seating. Our incredible friends from Inclusive Arts Vermont will be available to support access needs as well.

Our aim is for this to feel as inclusive as possible. If you need anything that isn't outlined above, please contact us at EssexVTPride@gmail.com by May 15. 

Contact US

The first Essex Pride event: a dozen folks in the pouring rain at Five Corners (June 2022)

Disclaimer: Essex Pride and the Essex Pride Festival are coordinated by the Essex Pride Committee. We're a small group of community members and are not a part of or affiliated with any official entities. We're just a handful of folks who want to create events meant to uplift our LGBTQIA+ community during a time where queer and trans people are increasingly the targets of hate. 100% of profits raised from events we put on are contributed back to official organizations whose resources uplift our community. Homophobia and transphobia have no place in Essex - our goal is to make that clear to anyone who thinks otherwise.

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