SLO PrideFest holds ‘biggest, most inclusive’ festival following 2-year COVID hiatus

San Luis Obispo’s pride festival returned after a two-year coronavirus hiatus “better and stronger” than ever before, organizers said.

Held May 20 through 22, San Luis Obispo PrideFest moved to a new venue this year — trading its usual spot at Mission Plaza in downtown San Luis Obispo for Laguna Lake — and expanded to a three-day schedule.

Organizers with the Gala Pride & Diversity Center also moved the festival dates from July to May to allow a greater number of Cal Poly students to attend.

“In the last year or so, we’ve had more involvement with Cal Poly and Cuesta … and the kids have really stepped up,” said former Gala president Doug Heumann. “We wanted to (move the date) so that we can engage the students as well, so I think that really worked out.”

In response to states passing anti-transgender laws and considering so-called “don’t say gay” bills banning teaching about gender and sexuality, Gala President Dustin “Dusty” Coyler-Worth said, organizers wanted to host their “biggest festival” yet.

“We decided, ’Okay, we’re not gonna say ‘gay,’ we’re gonna shout it as loud as we can and throw the biggest, most inclusive party we possibly could,” Coyler-Worth said.

The new space allowed the festival to offer the largest children’s section it’s ever had.

The organizers heard from parents and young kids overjoyed to be “somewhere where everybody is just who they can be,” said Heumann, who came out as transgender in 1999.

“Right now, we have over 300 laws throughout the United States that are attacking our transgender children,” Heumann said. “It’s disheartening sometimes. As adults, you kind of get past it, and you go, ‘Okay, we keep fighting.’ ”

Tanya Winje, who was a teenager when SLO PrideFest began, is now a psychology graduate student assistant at Cal Poly’s Pride Center. She was there to offer resources and information to students who attended.

“Many students ... feel isolated, they feel disconnected, especially after a pandemic,” Winje said. “Events like this pull people together and make them feel that they’re not alone, because they’re not.”

Now in its 25th year, PrideFest has served as a fundraiser for Gala since 1997. The nonprofit organization that serves 200 people monthly according to its website, as its staff conducts outreach and education for the community, school districts, police departments and other organizations.

The event is a way to honor Pride Month, which takes place in June.

This year’s festival had a greater emphasis on intersectionality, according to Gala staff.

For instance, yak titʸu titʸu yak tiłhini, the Northern Chumash Tribe of San Luis Obispo County and Region, helped kick off the PrideFest on Friday night.

Highlights of the 2022 festival included DJs and live music by local bands Honeyboys, Couch Dog and Kiwi Kannibal, as well as performances by a cappella group Take it SLO and Studio of Performing Arts. Booths with vendors and groups ranging from Planned Parenthood to local jewelry business Dangle Diva were also present.

There was also a multi-day drag show. After-parties followed festivities all three days.

“We focused on local talent just to really celebrate the community as a whole, but also the LGBTQ community and allies,” Coyler-Worth said.

Gala asked for a “statement of affirmation” from all vendors and performers involved to “reaffirm their stance that they are supportive and affirming of all of the LGBTQ+ community,” according to Coyler-Worth.

The efforts paid off with a bigger turnout.

According to Heumann, more than a hundred people bought tickets for Friday alone.

Saturday and Sunday were free for attendees, but revenue for Gala came from Friday’s festival pass, parking passes, vendor fees, a beer garden and independent donations.

The event is a way to honor Pride Month, which takes place in June.

Coyler-Worth recalled how a young, “trepidatious” person walked up to the Gala information table to share that they were leaving the Mormon Church and “questioning their belonging in this world,” yet at PrideFest, they were “welcomed with open arms.”

“(It was) just a very joyful and tearful moment at the same time (with them) saying, ‘There is a place for me in this world, and it’s here,’ ” Coyler-Worth said. “It was awesome — moments like that.”

Gala also saw families with trans children leave with a sense of community and support.

“These parents are navigating a world they don’t really understand either for their child, but to have the joy of their child seeing a community that is here to love and support them, as well as their parents to feel that loving support as they’re raising a trans child, it’s magic — it’s just pure magic,” Coyler-Worth said.

Gabriela Calderon went to PrideFest all three days to support her friend in the drag show.

It was her first time at SLO PrideFest, and though she said it was a bit too spread out compared to the San Francisco and Sacramento pride festivals she’s used to, she was still “very impressed.”

“I didn’t think SLO could have something this LGBTQ friendly and massive,” Calderon said. “It’s pretty great.”

“You can’t find that on a daily” basis in San Luis Obispo County,” she noted. “Honestly, I wish we had more spaces overall because there aren’t prominent queer spaces.”

According to Coyler-Worth, pride is not just a celebration, but also “a protest and a promise.”

“We are here. We want to be seen. We are going to celebrate everything we are and we’re going to continue to fight until equity is achieved,” Coyler-Worth said. “We’re committed to coming back next year and doing it even bigger and better and more badass.”