NORTHAMPTON — For the first time in three years, Pride returns to the city on Saturday to celebrate the LGBTQ community with a parade, performances, vendors and a bar crawl.

A new organization called Hampshire Pride is fronting the event, which will take place from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

“It’s a time to honor, celebrate and showcase the LGBTQ-plus community in the current political climate of anti-trans, anti-drag and ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bills,” said Clay Pearson, founder and director of Hampshire Pride. “We could not stand idly by and let Northampton go Pride-less any longer.”

The parade will begin at 11 a.m. at Sheldon Field and will proceed down Bridge Street to Old South Street, which is the technical end of the parade. Pearson expects that marchers will then walk down to the Armory Street parking lot behind Thornes Marketplace where the festival will take place.

At 12 p.m. a band called Faust Tak will kick off the festival with live music, and at 1 p.m. Northampton Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra will give a mayoral proclamation.

Seven drag queens will then perform, hosted by Priscilla Porcelain, a drag queen from the queer Northampton bar Majestic Saloon. Lorelei Erisis, a queer writer and motivational speaker, will also speak and bands including Champagne Pool and Lexi Weege will perform.

The festival will also feature more than 30 vendors including small businesses Clay of Color, pastries and coffees from Wicked Whisk, a yoga studio called Blue Lotus, and SexEduNation, along with many more.

“It’s a really wide breadth of community health organizations, small businesses, local banks, realtors and artists,” Pearson said.

During and after the festival, participants are invited to a Pride bar crawl through nine Northampton bars including Toasted Owl Tavern, The Majestic Saloon and The Dirty Truth. Hampshire Pride’s Facebook page encourages participants to collect wristbands from all nine bars for a chance to win a Pride T-shirt.

“Our goal is just to run a celebration, because Pride is a celebration,” said Pearson. So far, over 500 people have responded “going” or “interested” to the event on Facebook.

Pearson grew up in the South and didn’t have the opportunity to attend a Pride event, nor did he come out until he was in his 20s.

“Growing up Pride-less is something that I don’t wish up anybody,” Pearson said. “Anybody should be able to go and attend a parade.”

The event is funded by local sponsors including Familiars Coffee & Tea, Florence Bank, Maple and Main Realty, River Valley Co-op and more, along with drag queen performances that made up the first $1,000 of fundraising.

Pride-related events have been held in Northampton since 1982 and have drawn crowds as large as 40,000 people. A nonprofit called Noho Pride has run the event since 2010, but took a hiatus when the COVID-19 pandemic struck.

Last year, a small march took place downtown for the 40th anniversary of Pride in Northampton, but the last official Pride event held by Noho Pride was in 2019.

Pearson founded Hampshire Pride on March 1 and gathered a team of seven people to spearhead the event over the past nine weeks.

“Being able to showcase how large our community is is really important, and to make sure that everybody knows that not only are we here, but we’re important and we’re lively,” Pearson said.

Pride Block Party Sunday

The weekend’s Pride festivities will continue with a Downtown Northampton Pride Block Party on Sunday from noon to 6 p.m. The block party was organized by Spill the Tea Sis, Pinch, Shop Therapy and Synergy. The family-friendly event will feature street shopping and tarot and divination readings.

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