BETHLEHEM, Pa. — The 30th anniversary of the Lehigh Valley Pride festival, held Sunday afternoon at SteelStacks, was the biggest edition so far, thanks to a larger venue and record-breaking attendance boosted by free admission, organizers said.
- The Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center hosted the Lehigh Valley Pride festival
- This year marks the 30th anniversary of the festival, and is the first time it has taken place at SteelStacks
- Organizers said they broke the festival’s prior attendance record less than two hours into the festival
Lehigh Valley Pride, sponsored by the Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center in Allentown, celebrates LGBT people and culture through performances, drag shows, vendors, film screenings and more.
“It means the world to us to see this many people here with the year that our community has had with legislative attacks, that everyone feels safe to come out here,” said Bradbury-Sullivan Center public relations manager Braden Hudak.
“To be able to feel safe, come out, be seen, be heard, not worry that they're being judged, not worry that they'll be discriminated against… It doesn't get any better,” said Hudak.
This year is the 30th anniversary of Lehigh Valley Pride, and its first year at SteelStacks instead of the Jewish Community Center of the Lehigh Valley, where it was held previously.
“I mean, don't get me wrong, God bless the JCC, but they were in a parking lot,” said festival attendee Kevin Wilson, from Bethlehem. “So having this big space, I mean, it's just phenomenal.”
This year’s festival spread performers, vendors and other experiences across the ArtsQuest Center, the Univest Public Media Center, the Levitt Pavilion stage and much of the SteelStacks campus between them. It’s also the first year the festival hosted multiple stages, and the first year admission was free.
By around 4 p.m., organizers believe they surpassed the previous 5,500-attendee record with more than half of the festival left to go.
MORE: Pride Parade comes to Allentown for 1st time in almost 20 years
Outside of Bethlehem, organizers raised a rainbow flag in Easton on Sunday morning and led a parade through Allentown to celebrate the Valley’s LGBT community.
Main stage acts included headliner Meryahcology, a musician specializing in 1990s and 2000s neo-soul and R&B, main stage emcee MC Boom Boom, stand-up comedian Tan Hoang, DJ Deluxx The OG, musician D’Neah Allen, and drag artist VinChelle, among many others.
Lehigh Valley Public Media — that includes LehighValleyNews.com, PBS39 and 91.3 WLVR — is a sponsor of Lehigh Valley Pride.
For many of the festival’s attendees, it offers a feeling of safety, support and community that can be hard to come by elsewhere.
“It’s nice to see, because not everybody is a part of the community, some are just allies,” said Brittany, a self-described “full-blown lesbian” from Allentown. “A lot of people don’t have that [support] in their personal lives.”
It’s about “being with everybody who’s just like I am,” said Dave Greggo from Whitehall, something especially precious considering the “many years the gay community has lived suppressed.”
“I've been to Pride in Chicago, and in New York twice, and obviously, those are much bigger, crazy, crazy events. But it's nice to be here,” said Brenig Ghorm, of Bethlehem. “It's like I can be accepted in my own community.”
Emphasis on accessibility
“The thing about our community is that it’s so intersectional,” said Hudak. “We have to try and serve every part of our community.”
The new, larger location for the festival helped make some of those goals more achievable, organizers said. For example, the festival has previously hosted a “sensory space” where people with sensory processing difficulties can escape the torrent of sound and other stimuli that comes with a large festival.
“Just to lay eyes on the community that does exist here in the Lehigh Valley is absolutely life-changing.”Braden Hudak, Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center
Previous accommodations at the Jewish Community Center were too small for the sensory area to be meaningfully isolated from the rest of the festival. This year, it was inside the ArtsQuest Center, and much more effective, organizers said.
Similarly, being able to see vendors and performances inside, out of the heat, also improves accessibility, said Hudak.
The number of sign language interpreters has also increased, from one for the main stage in years past to six this year, at stages, vendor areas and the main “pride central” information area. Also added were Spanish language interpreters.
Like past festivals, this year’s included space and activities for younger participants; like other aspects of the festival, this year’s kids areas was beefed up substantially compared to years past, and included distinct areas for teens, youth and babies.
In another effort to open the pride experience to as many as possible, this year’s festival included a first-ever sober 18+ dance party for people who want a club-like atmosphere, but without the alcohol that typically comes with it.
It’s important people are able to have these experiences, said Hudak, because of how profoundly finding a supportive community can be for LGBT people. He said he still remembers attending Lehigh Valley Pride when he was 15 and freshly forced out of the closet, and the feeling of no longer being alone.
“You don't know what's going to happen. There's so much anxiety around that. To come out and to see so many [supporters] from such a vast age group… To be able to see that was like, ‘OK, that’s what life can be. It's going to get better, and there is a community here,’” he said.
“Just to lay eyes on the community that does exist here in the Lehigh Valley is absolutely life-changing.”
