Logan Pride Festival supporting Cache County’s LGBTQ+ community
Rainbow flags waved from colorful booths as thousands of Logan residents gathered to celebrate Logan’s Pride Festival on Sept. 9.
The festival, hosting a record number of 84 vendors and filling Willow Park close to bursting, would be Logan Pride’s “largest fundraising event” of the year, according to Logan Pride Festival director Sarah Harmon. Last year, Harmon noted, 3,000 people had participated, and this year’s event would also likely host the same — if not more— amount of people.
“I feel like the fact that we can have such a big pride for such a small town indicates a lot about our community, and it just sends a message that there is a big queer community here, and that we are supported,” said Arin Doyle, a Utah State University senior majoring in psychology. “It’s something that I haven’t really experienced in any other like, isolated or small town, which is great.”
Participants walked between the 84 booths, many of which advertised local artists’ work and displayed everything from crocheted beanies to hand-painted canvases.
Other booths showcased resources for LGBTQ+ individuals, such as the USU Inclusion Center, the nonprofit Genderbands, and the Logan Library — which had several LGBTQ-focused books out on display.
While participants would walk between the booths, they could listen to or watch local performers and drag queens, including Neptune Mikesell, Big Sis, Scott Hall and Notta Genda.
Harmon said the donations to the festival would help fund the Logan Pride house, the nonprofit’s home that provides a place for activities and support groups for Cache County’s LGBTQ+ community.
“It (the festival) grows our community; it helps us partner with other community members,” Harmon said.
Doyle agreed Logan Pride didn’t just celebrate them and their roommates, but that it helped them feel “more connected to the local community” — something that he said Salt Lake Pride’s festival had lacked.
“This has been a much better experience for me just in general, and then I came here with my roommates from gender-inclusive housing, and we’ve loved coming here. This is something that we do every year; we just plan on coming,” Doyle said.
And for Aery George, a Logan-based artist, the festival is a wonderful opportunity for her to not just showcase her illustrations and crafts, but to meet other LGBTQ+ members of the community.
“I love it because I am a part of the queer community, and so I love to be able to get to meet other people who are like-minded, and I love that I get to like, nerd out with them,” George said. “This is my first year doing this, and it’s such a great experience getting to actually interact with everybody.”
Harmon added the festival isn’t just meant to support LGBTQ-owned nonprofits, businesses, artists and performers, but it exists for the community to feel more connected and celebrated.
“I think that the Logan Pride Festival switches from, ‘It’s okay to be gay,’ to, ‘Let’s celebrate you for being authentic to yourself,’” Harmon said. “I think that it opens a lot of doors for … people to come here and recognize that it’s more than okay just to be gay, right? Like, that we love every part about people and they deserve to be celebrated for who they are.”
George agreed, noting it’s easy for LGBTQ+ individuals in small towns to feel isolated and hurt — but how the festival proved to instead provide comfort to the community.
“It’s so easy to, especially here in Utah, feel like we’re alone and that we’re the ‘other,’ so I love getting all together like this. You get to see just how strong our community actually is,” George said.