On Sept. 15, Oswego Pride and Queens for a Cause hosted their annual Pride Festival.
Queens for a Cause has hosted a number of charity events in the past to support and help the community, including monthly drag shows, and worked with other organizations to help with events like Toys for Tots and the AIDS Walk.
This year’s theme for the Pride Festival was “Love in Color,” and the event kicked off at 11a.m. at Breitbeck Park with a pride march. Those marching held up the gay pride flag and walked to the corner of West First and West Cayuga Street. The rest of the festival took place at West Linear Park, with vendors such as Dino’s House of Burgers and Lipsense.
At noon, there was a family-friendly drag show hosted by local drag queens Macy Parade and DeeDee Bustier. Other drag queens from the area gave performances as well, followed by the first-ever Oswego Pride’s Got Talent competition, where local people and acts were able to compete for cash prizes.
“The talent show was a new thing they came up with this year that seemed to work really well,” Oswego State senior Maria DeRenzo said. “There were a few new vendors, as well as the addition of the Oswego Pride Color Guard marching in the parade.”
Coming in third place was the Oswego State Swing Dance Club, where six of its club members performed a mashup of previously choreographed routines. In order to show different sexualities and pairings, they had a male/female couple, a female/female couple and a male/male couple.
“What it boils down to is that I have these five dancers I’m working with, so I wanted to do something from past semesters: something fun and something that highlights the strengths of all my lovely dancers,” said co-choreographer and Oswego State graduate student Josh Herrick. “Not only this, but I wanted to show a big variety of types of swing that we do, so I showed three types: jive, foxtrot and basic East Coast.”
With its winnings, the club was able to have food and drinks at its first club meeting of the semester.
“As an ally, it was cool to still be included in a cause that is very close to my heart, and to be able to perform at a very new event in the festival was an honor, really,” Treasurer of Swing Club Lauren Degnan said.
After the talent competition, local bands and musicians were able to take their turn on stage.
In addition to the Swing Dance Club, other Oswego State organizations stopped by the festival to show support. Oswego State senior Ryan Benson Smith marched in the parade and attended the festival with Oswego State Pride Alliance. This was his third time attending Oswego Pride.
Those who had attended Pride Festivals in the past had noted a lower attendance, but it did not influence their time at the festival.
“I think although it was not as well-attended as it has been in the past, the people who were there had a great time,” Smith said.
“I think that it went very well. There maybe wasn’t as many people there as there have been in previous years, but there were other things going on in the community that day as well,” DeRenzo said.
Photos by Maria Pericozzi | The Oswegonian
