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Date: 6/13/2023
HOLYOKE — PrideFest is back and gearing up for its greatest day of celebration in the city of Holyoke yet.
Saturday, June 17 at Veteran’s Park the public is welcomed to gather for an afternoon of music, food and celebration of the LGBTQ+ community. This year’s festival is headlined by Grammy nominated singer Mary Lambert and an appearance by professional drag queen, make-up artist and reality television personality Jessica Wild.
Lambert, who now resides in Western Massachusetts, rose to fame after writing and singing the chorus of “Same Love,” a 2012 Macklemore and Ryan Lewis song that has become a Grammy-nominated and famous song about marriage equality. Wild is a Puerto Rican drag queen who was a contestant on seasons 2 and 8 of popular reality contest RuPaul’s Drag Race and maintains 181,000 followers on Instagram to date.
One of the organizers behind PrideFest is Jeff Bianchine who told Reminder Publishing excitement around this year’s festival is at an all time high and based on Facebook analytics they are expecting a packed crowd to come out.
“Last year we had a great turnout, so we’ve been gearing up for more,” Bianchine said. “It’s exciting to keep growing the festival.”
Bianchine noted there will be more food vendors and the addition of an alcohol tent for this years festival that will include different bars across Holyoke serving mixed drinks, beer and wine. There will also be more craft vendors and nonprofit organizations set up throughout Veterans Park for attendees to check out during the afternoon.
Food and drink vendors will include Crave, the Wingman, Holyoke Hummus Company, White Lion Brewing, El Paraiso Colombiano, Francie’s Tavern, Caravan Kitchen and much more. Art and craft vendors will include the Print Shop, The Artery, Rabbit Run Arts & Crafts, FishScale Creations and many more.
According to Bianchine, organizers were looking to take the festival a step further if possible and luckily they have seemed to have done that in securing the talent scheduled to come through on the day. He added the committee is excited to welcome Lambert and Wild to the Holyoke PrideFest party.
Bianchine said thanks to securing additional sponsors and fundraising efforts, organizers were able to secure both acts and added he believes it’s “totally going to be worth it,” as online buzz has shown there is notable interest for the event and seeing these performers. Bianchine noted the organizers on the Holyoke Pride Committee hope that not only Holyokers make it out and show their support for the LGBTQ+ community, but that also the festival garners regional interest.
“The committee really wants to grow Holyoke’s Pride as a regional thing and not just for Holyoke. I think a lot of Holyoke events get pigeonholed as just Holyoke,” Bianchine said. “Last year when Northampton wasn’t doing their pride, we took it as an opportunity to sort of step up and so we just want to keep doing that.”
There will also be an opportunity leading up to the festival to purchase advanced tickets for a meet and greet with Wild that will be available for purchase through holyokepride.org. Bianchine reiterated the committee went all in this year to throw a great celebration for Pride and the greater community within Western Massachusetts.
“It’s going to be worth every penny, and I don’t know how we’re going to top it next year,” Bianchine said with a laugh.
Bianchine also credited Holyoke for its history of open mindedness for the LGBTQ+ community as the festival to show support and celebrate Pride Month has only grown over the years.
“You have a freedom from fear for the most part to be able to express ourselves as the people that we are [in Holyoke] where in other parts of the country right now that might not be as – you know, the fear is there,” Bianchine said. “But for the most part we know we are in a tolerant and accepting part of the country.”
For more information on this year’s PrideFest visit holyokepride.org.