Lenawee Pride festival slated for Aug. 27 in downtown Adrian – The Daily Telegram
ADRIAN — An-all ages community festival — complete with a parade and live music — will take over downtown Adrian for much of the afternoon and evening Saturday, Aug. 27, in celebration of Lenawee County’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning and others community.
The Lenawee Pride festival and its inaugural pride parade will come to downtown Adrian for the first time in its three-year history. Two other small-scale festivals — one in 2019 and another in 2021 — were conducted, but continued support and interest from the community for expanding the festival’s outreach have allowed it to branch out into the heart of downtown Adrian.
“The community around (Lenawee County) has continued to support us, our festival and our mission,” said Socorro Sevilla, president of the M Society, which is in downtown Adrian and is the host of Saturday’s pride festival and parade.
Sponsors include North Coast Provisioning and McCullough, Vargas and Associates.
The M Society is a nonprofit arm of Hilltop Counseling, 115 W. Maumee St. in Adrian, where Sevilla is a fully licensed clinical social worker. Sevilla’s focus is on working with individuals ages 3-25 as well as all ages and members of the LGBTQ+ community.
Sevilla has more than 25 years of client-centered advocacy work and graduated in 2009 from Eastern Michigan University with a master’s degree in social work.
The mission of The M Society is to improve the mental and physical well-being of the LGBTQ+ community. Goals are met through supportive services that improve individual well-being and service projects that increase community involvement and engagement.
“One of our biggest driving goals is to maintain a space that would provide respite, crisis and transitional housing for Lenawee County’s homeless and housing-insecure adolescents and young adults,” The M Society’s website, themsociety.my.canva.site, states.
In addition to Seviila, board members of The M Society include Cara Snyder, treasurer, and Daniel Kruse, secretary.
Hilltop Counseling serves as the monthly meeting site for the Lenawee County chapter of Transgender Michigan.
Traditionally, during its previous two years as an event, the Lenawee Pride Festival has been held toward the end of August to make the biggest impact it can while welcoming college and other students to the event right before the start of the new school year.
Vendors, area service providers and food trucks are also going to be a part of this weekend’s get-together.
“During our first year we had maybe 50 people in attendance and no vendors,” Sevilla said. “The second year got bigger in 2021. We didn’t have anything in 2020 because of COVID, and this year, we are excited to be downtown and offering a full day of family-friendly entertainment.”
While there are no admission fees to the live entertainment and festival, organizers are asking for people to drop off school supplies that can be donated to area youth.
This will be the first year that Lenawee Pride has had a parade. The parade begins at 1 p.m. and serves as the official kickoff to Saturday’s festival. Parade lineup begins in the parking lot of the Adrian Plaza along the 400 block of West Maumee Street. The route of the parade continues down Maumee Street to North Winter Street, onto West Maple Avenue and then to North Main Street. The parade will conclude and funnel into East Maumee Street, where entertainment is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. with a near seven-hour variety show hosted by Nika Fierce.
The variety show, a promotional flyer said, will feature drag artists, comedians, burlesque performers, live bands and DJs. Once the festivities have begun downtown, a majority of the performances will be staged in front of Adrian City Hall.
To conclude the festival, a “Born This Way” dance party — inspired by the Lady Gaga song title and 2011 album — will run from 9 to 10 p.m.
To prepare for the parade and festival, East Maumee Street between North Main and Broad streets will be closed at 9 p.m. Friday, Aug. 26. The street will reopen at 1 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 28, the city of Adrian said in a news release. On-street parking will not be permitted during the closure. Parking will be available in the city-owned parking lots, and all surrounding business are expected to remain open.