By JUDD WEIL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — "Hold onto your seats, this is good," Julia Johnson, Salt City Pride Board Chairman, said on June 16 before she announced to a room full of cheering LGBTQIA people and allies that Salt City Pride will be holding the first-ever statewide Pride event in 2024.
Salt City Pride’s 2024 event will be held at the Kansas State Fairgrounds in Hutchinson. Johnson said the Kansas-wide Pride event will still take place over the course of two days and will take place in the fairgrounds Pride of Kansas building and the Meadowlark building.
This accomplishes a long-standing goal for Pride.
"It’s always been our goal to host an event this size and for this reason, especially in the fairgrounds. It’s one of the biggest venues in the state," Johnson said. "Connection matters, representation matters, and we are in the heart of the state, and so I felt it was important, my wife and I both, that we provide an event that not only showcases the positive features in Hutchinson but allowed connection and a safe space for all those to gather and celebrate."
Salt City Pride had tried to secure the Kansas State Fairgrounds as a venue in the past, so it was a surprise that they were able to for next year granted the harsh social climate they had to face when holding their 2023 event.
"Only this Pride have we received this kind of pushback. It was surprising, but we overcame it and the event went off and it was a huge success," Johnson said. "It far exceeded our expectations with all the rhetoric that was handed to us."
Salt City Pride 2023 had more than 5,000 people attend over the course of the two-day event. Johnson believes the Salt City Pride board and the community made a difference.
"Do I think that eyes were opened and hearts were widened a little bit? Yes. Absolutely," Johnson said. "I think that it’s been recognized we’re not a harm. That we’re simply trying to put on a good festival for everybody."
Johnson said Salt City Pride has been working on what Pride 2024 will look like at the Kansas State Fairgrounds since procuring the venue.
"It will have lots of family events," Johnson said. "It will be great because we can keep our vendors in one building and shows in the other."
The Salt City Pride board is excited to use the larger space offered by the Kansas State Fairgrounds to hold more kid-friendly and family-oriented events.
"We’ve already reached out to a lot of board members in surrounding communities and a lot of them are looking forward to working with us," Johnson said. "We have four new people coming on our board and we’ve had a ton of outreach from members within the community that want to join us and help with planning and security."
To prepare for the 2024 statewide Pride, Salt City Pride is creating new committees to make sure everything is placed properly to meet the needs of the new venue. One of those committees includes a parade committee.
Pride also intends to work with local hotels to make sure they can support out-of-town visitors.
There are several other ideas, but not everything is concrete yet.
"Our whole goal is to have a smooth-running event all the way around," Johnson said.
Visit Salt City Pride’s Facebook page or website to learn more about upcoming activities.
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