Utah Pride Festival barriers pushing some to organize their own Pride festivities

SALT LAKE CITY — As a queer business owner, Kristen Wolfe was excited to participate as a vendor in the 2023 Utah Pride Festival. Then she saw the price for a vendor booth.

"It is — for a weekend — more than I pay for this storefront in a month. It's not at a cost that I can even consider affording," she said. "I just don't know how the Utah Pride Center is able to guarantee that the people who pay $2,000 for a booth are going to see that money returned to them. So I couldn't justify it, even if I could afford it."

The Utah Pride Center received backlash this year over increased booth pricing, which ranged from $750 to $2,000. The center later clarified that businesses could share booth spaces or apply for financial assistance after an Instagram post was widely shared online that contained an email from a Pride Center employee stating the nonprofit would only offer financial assistance to nonprofits.

Pride spokeswoman Rosa Bandeirinha said the center held a listening forum to hear the small business community's concerns and subsequently created a scholarship process that lowered vendor fees to a minimum of $375.

"(That's) a sensible price considering the profits generated during a two-day event attended by nearly 150,000 people. This price also had in consideration the center's current financial responsibility to our community and mission," Bandeirinha said. "Direct and kind communication with our community is one of our priorities. We are grateful for everyone who created awareness about this and led us to think differently regarding the vendor portion of our festival so we can rethink it in the future."

The festival is the nonprofit's biggest source of revenue, and the funds go toward both the center's year-round operation costs and the expenses to put on Pride.

Wolfe is sympathetic to the center's increased costs for putting on the festival, but she wishes the nonprofit had been more transparent about financial aid and questioned why the festival's corporate sponsors couldn't bear the brunt of the festival's increased costs rather than small businesses and local artists.

"I think that a $2,000 sticker price without a clear scholarship program for low income artists does disenfranchise a very significant portion of the Salt Lake City queer community," Wolfe said, adding that Pride month revenue is often the biggest month of the year, second to December for LGBTQ-owned businesses. "If you were relying on the Pride Festival being an event that you could go and make money, and they put a $2,000 price tag on it, that can very much mess with your livelihood and your stability."

It's frustrations like these that have pushed Wolfe and others to organize their own Pride festivities. One alternative is Burning Sissy Valley, which hosts an annual Pride event for LGBTQ individuals of color. Another is Pride Without Police, which was organized in opposition to the Utah Pride Center's decision to invite uniformed officers to march in the parade. Pride Without Police did not respond to KSL.com's request for an interview.

Out & Proud Market

Wolfe, owner of Vintage Drift SLC, recently opened a brick and mortar store off of Harvey Milk Boulevard (900 South) that features an eclectic curation of vintage and new items. At any given time, the shop also features items from 10-20 local LGBTQ artists. It's a space she said is welcoming to queer artists and curated for queer people.

"As a queer person, I was often told that my art was too political. So I wouldn't be accepted into retail spaces that, for other artists, it seems to be very easy for them to get into," Wolfe said. "I really wanted to figure out how to create space for my community and really create space for showcasing and celebrating queer art and not shying away from it and not labeling it as political or divisive in some way."

Wolfe has used that community-focused outlook to organize the Out & Proud Market, which will be held across three weekends: June 10, 17 and 24 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. She said she chose not to hold the market over the Pride Festival weekend because she expects people will go to that event.

"This event is just more about celebrating community and creating a space and an awareness that Pride is more than a weekend," Wolfe said. "We're here all the time. We're excited to be here. You know, that's why we're calling it 'Out & Proud,' because we are very proud. We've got the Harvey Milk mural on the side of the building. We're not overly political. You don't need to be afraid of working with us, of supporting us, of being excited that we're in your community. We're just your neighbors."

Booth space is $25, which Wolfe said will go toward online and print advertising, snacks for vendors and a shade tent.

The market will be a mix of about two dozen pop-up vintage sellers and artists as well as a number of participating businesses along the block, including many LGBTQ-owned ones like Zero Proof Bar and Tinker's Cat Cafe.

Creating space for LGBTQ people of color

When the organizers of a Pride event for queer people of color stepped down from hosting the event, Pedro Hueramo Rico felt he needed to fill that void. Hueramo, a queer Chicano who grew up on Salt Lake City's west side, and another Westminster College student, Jared Winn-Taylor, started to organize what would eventually become Burning Sissy Valley.

One priority for Burning Sissy Valley has always been making sure their event was accessible. That focus has translated to holding the event at the Kearns library, a free and ADA-compliant venue; not charging entry fees; and making sure attendees got fed for free. Hueramo said all the funds that were crowd sourced for the event went to paying food, performers and individuals leading workshops.

"At the time we had a conversation around how Pride was really inaccessible for most of us ... you pay to get in, but then you don't really have money to pay for food, drinks and stuff from vendors," Hueramo said. "For (Black, Indigenous and people of color) and queer BIPOC, money can be an issue. Right now in the United States, a lot of people are living paycheck to paycheck, so sometimes you can't justify paying for a ticket, or you can't justify paying for an artist's content."

Bandeirinha, the Pride Center spokeswoman, said the center prioritizes performers and vendors of color.

"Our lineup of local, national and international talent was curated to reflect and represent the diversity of the communities we serve. Pride events are age inclusive and have a wide range of prices — some are free, and some are as inexpensive as $10," Bandeirinha said.

The Burning Sissy Valley Event first launched in 2021 and featured artists and makers, a clothing exchange, resources on issues like how to access gender-affirming care, performers, food and workshops that included topics like queer ancestry before colonization and conversations around navigating microaggressions.

Since that first year, Burning Sissy Valley has expanded to become a registered nonprofit with a board that holds community activities throughout the year. Seeing that growth has instilled Hueramo with a sense of hope. This year, the nonprofit had to push its event to Sept. 16 due to scheduling conflicts with the library, but it will still have a Pride lake day celebration on July 29.

"It's so meaningful. On that day when we were wrapping up, people were crying because they were just so grateful to have a space where they can just exist and have their identities being affirmed. It's just something that's needed," he said. "We kind of wanted to have this vibe of like you're going to a house party or a family get together. That's kind of like the culture we want to be building."

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