To celebrate Pride Month, the first-ever Mt. Airy Pride Festival is set to take place at High Point Cafe on Cresheim Road on Sunday, June 14. The event will feature many local businesses, nonprofits, community organizations, and LGBTQ+ resources within Mt. Airy and the surrounding area.

Lead coordinator Paige GoldMarche has been working with her team for the past six to seven months to organize an unforgettable event. Being a part of the large queer community in Mt. Airy, GoldMarche took notice that many of the local queer parents were not attending Pride in Philadelphia because of the heat, distance and trouble bringing children into the city. So, she decided to bring a pride celebration to Mt. Airy.

“I’m so excited and I’m so proud of the team that has come together to create this,” GoldMarche said. “We were having meetings every other Friday since January or December and now it’s every week.”

Working with High Point Cafe has provided GoldMarche and her team with a central and accessible space to host the event. Right next to the Richard Allen Lane Train Station, High Point Cafe was the perfect spot to invite not just Mt. Airy residents, but those who may be a train ride away as well.

The event will run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and feature all-day live entertainment from local artists Ants on a Log, Philadelphia School of Circus Arts, Kurt Cobain’s Dad-band, Drag King Mx’ed Nutz, and ANNA Crusis Feminist Choir. The Pride Festival will also feature vendors and resources including Act Up Philadelphia, Prism Therapy Center, Mt. Airy Learning Tree, and many more.

“People are signing up, folks who want to be a part of this,” GoldMarche said. “They want to have a table. They want to be seen. They want to see people. They want to be here.”

While most of the planning has gone smoothly, GoldMarche said that funding has been the biggest challenge. She and her team wanted the event to be open to everyone, so they decided to be flexible with how much the vendors paid to secure their spots at the event.

“We wanted to make it accessible to everyone for tabling,” GoldMarche said. “If you table and you’re a business, we asked between zero and over $100 because if you’re new and you haven’t made a profit yet, let us be the place where you can start making profits.”

With over 25 vendors currently signed up and a few more spots to fill, GoldMarche is excited to see so many members of the community getting involved. The vendors are a crucial part of this event, providing entertainment and resources to Mt. Airy residents.

“You know, it’s very much a community effort, and I’m excited to see who comes out for this,” GoldMarche said. “I’m excited to see if some folks decide that this is what they want to get involved in.”

As the days count down leading up to the festival, final preparations are in order to make sure everything runs smoothly. GoldMarche and her team are continuing to promote the Mt. Airy Pride Festival through social media, as well as word of mouth.

The festival is intended not only to celebrate Pride Month but to strengthen the already diverse community in Mt. Airy, and to create a space for anyone to feel welcome and included. GoldMarche emphasized the importance of representation in such a diverse neighborhood, and she has high hopes for the Mt. Airy Pride Festival to become an annual tradition.

“It is such a unique place with all different types of diversity here,” GoldMarche said. “...So [it’s important] for us to be able to lift up the voices of all the different folks in the area who either are queer or are creating their own type of products that they want to sell.”