SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) – Over the past year, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced organizations like the Utah Pride Center to think about hosting events that typically involve large gatherings, such as Pride Week. They canceled their 2020 festival and parade and instead hosted the Road Rally to ensure everyone’s safety. This year they will again be hosting limited personal celebrations between June 1st and 7th, but with some new and unique elements.
Salt Lake City Pride Festival and Parade postponed
“This incredible event will probably never take place again in this form and on this scale. It will be unique, fun, educational, and an opportunity to get out of our homes, be together again, and do so safely, ”said Dr. Rob Moolman, Executive Director and CEO of the Utah Pride Center.
The celebration includes the Rainbow March and Rally, the Pride Month and Flag Raising proclamations, Pride Interfaith Service, and the Pride Story Garden. The garden is an outdoor interactive exhibit with 20 unique themed gardens celebrating the LGBTQ + community. This includes Utah’s queer history, local heroes, drag queendom, stories around the world, civil rights timeline, and more. Due to COVID-19, the organizers say a Pride Festival and a parade are not safe this year. This means leaving out things like food, vendors, drinks, exhibitors, stage, and live entertainment. However, they are confident that all of that will return in 2022.
The Utah Pride Center is hosting the COVID-friendly celebration of Pride Week
Billy Clouse (he / he / she), a Utah Pride Week volunteer, took part in an IN FOCUS discussion on the Story Garden, an exhibition he designed and created, with Rosie Nguyen of ABC4 on CW30 News at 7 p.m. which will be shown front and center for thousands of people attending the event.
He talked about what Pride Week means to him, how he likes to celebrate it, why Pride Week is so important given the difficulty of the past year, his personal bond and vision for the Story Garden and the different themes of the exhibition. and how he feels when his work is featured at the event.
Isaiah Mataele (he / he), Community Engagement Manager, and Kevin Randall (he / he), spokesman for the Utah Pride Center, discussed the need to postpone plans for Pride Week last year during the pandemic, what it means to host the country’s first personal Pride Week celebrations, how this year’s celebrations will be different and unique, what it means to be a unicorn donor, how the public can get involved or show support beyond attending the event , and how to buy tickets to the Story Garden.
The Utah Pride Center announces the first annual Pride Road Rally
For more information, visit the Utah Pride Week website or click here to purchase Pride Story Garden tickets.
Click the video at the top of the article to see the full IN FOCUS discussion with Clouse, Mataele, and Randall.
Catch the IN FOCUS discussion with Rosie Nguyen of ABC4 on the 7pm CW30 news
Rosie Nguyen is an award-winning journalist who joined the ABC4 News team as a reporter in January 2018. In September 2020, at 7 p.m., she started a new journey as an anchor for the CW30 News. She continues her passion for social justice and community issues through the nightly In Focus discussions.
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