The very first Glastonbury Pride Festival will take place Sunday, June 9 as communities continue to celebrate Pride month throughout the state.
The very first Glastonbury Pride Festival will take place Sunday, June 9 as communities continue to celebrate Pride month throughout the state.
“When I moved here I really saw something special in this community,” said Glastonbury Pride co-founder Anthony DiLizia.
It started as just a vision for DiLizia.
“I really felt as though this could be an amazing place to hold a Pride event,” he said.
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After months of planning, DiLizia helped to bring that thought to life, co-founding the first-ever Glastonbury Pride Festival.
“Sometimes people can think that Pride is simply a party, and to be fair it is a celebration. It’s a celebration of the community, it’s a celebration of the progress that we’ve made and also an acknowledgment of the progress that still needs to be made,” DiLizia said.
The festival will take place this Sunday, June 9 on Glastonbury’s Hubbard Green.
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“I’ve grown up here for 28 years. One of my safe spaces was definitely going to school here. It was actually a really welcoming area and I’m actually so happy that it’s coming outside of the schools and now into the general public,” said Glastonbury’s Clarissa Lonero.
“We’re gonna have live performances, music, we have so many interests in vendors that are going to be showing and tabling at the event,” DiLizia said.
One of the performers set to take the stage on Sunday is Angel Rivers.
“Drag queens, for the most part, are at the forefront of a lot of the Civil Rights Movements for the LGBT community. We fight, we stand up for our people because we don’t have any fear. We go out of the house like this,” Rivers said.
Angel has been a drag entertainer for eight years and says events like these are about creating spaces for everyone to come together.
“Pride is for everybody, it's a celebration of just being OK with stepping out of your home and feeling comfortable enough to express yourself, and that’s what Pride is about,” Rivers said.
The event takes place from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday, June 9.
