Editor's note: This story is part of Southwest Michigan Second Wave's On the Ground Battle Creek series. 
 
The LGBTQ+ community in Calhoun County will celebrate and be celebrated during Pride Month festivities beginning Thursday in Battle Creek.
 
As in years past, the main event will be the Pride Festival from 1-7 p.m. on Saturday, July 22 at Leila Arboretum followed by an Afterglow Party from 8-10 p.m. Both events are open to the public.
 
More than 2,500 people are expected to attend the festival which will feature 80 information booths and vendors representing organizations including churches, the Battle Creek Symphony Orchestra, area nonprofits, city and county government, craftspeople, and food trucks, says Kim Langridge, co-president of BC Pride which is organizing Pride Month events and activities.
 
New to this year’s festival is the addition of a second drag show with feature performer SalinaEs Titties who performed on Ru Paul’s Drag Race, Langridge says.
 
Loraine Fahling and son Charlie Fulbright “The Festival has grown every year except for 2020 when we were all dealing with COVID and we had to do the event virtually,” she says. “Last year I think everybody was just ready to get out and see people and have fun. We didn’t count how many people came through the gate. We only counted how many people came for the entertainment. Our best estimate is that between 2,000 and 2,500 were there.”

Since 2017, the first year that the city celebrated Pride Month in July, attendance has grown steadily, says Deana Spencer, co-president of BC Pride. The month of June has been officially designated as Pride Month, but leadership with Battle Creek Pride say they have chosen to hold their celebration in July, so they can participate in Pride events in cities that celebrate in June.

Friends celebrate at BC Pride.
One thing BC Pride prides itself on is that they host one of the only Pride Festival in Michigan that doesn’t charge an admission fee. Langridge says they will instead charge a parking fee of $5 per car this year as a way to help defray the cost of the event for the LGBTQ+ nonprofit. In addition to the parking fee, sponsors including Progressive Printing & Graphics, New Story Community Books, Post Consumer Brands, Graphix 2 Go and Territorial Brewing also are helping to cover the cost of the Festival.
 
“One reason we don’t want to charge admission is that if you have a family with three or four kids it can be expensive if you factor in the cost of things like hot dogs and soda. We want people to come and we don’t want cost to be a barrier for them. This Festival is for everyone, including families.”
 
As a way to reinforce the event’s family-friendly atmosphere, there will be a dedicated area for children where they can play games and win prizes.
 
The Pride Festival is part of a line-up of signature events that begin at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday with an LGBTQ & A trivia contest at the Miller Stone Building. The trivia competition is billed as an “evening of straight answers to not-so-straight questions.”
 
The 2023 BC Pride will include a beer tent.This will be followed by a parade that steps off at 7 p.m. on Friday in downtown Battle Creek that will be followed by a Drag show open to the public at a park across from Cafe Rica at 8 p.m.

The weekend festivities will close on a somber note on Sunday with a Candlelight Vigil at the BC Pride offices at 104 Calhoun Street to honor the memory of members of the LGBTQ+ community who have passed. Langridge says Harvard Street will be closed to accommodate the anticipated number of people who will attend the vigil.
 
A celebration and a message
  
Langridge says the Festival began as a picnic at a local beach and “grew and grew from there. We moved it to a public park and it got bigger from there. This is the second year that we’re having it at Leila Arboretum.”
 
Organizers of the Pride events in Battle Creek have been meeting every week since October to plan their Festival.
 
BC Pride is always full of colorful surprises.“The biggest thing is the size of it,” she says.
 
While the focus of BC Pride in July is on the Pride Festival, leadership and volunteers with the organization are busy throughout the year putting on events and activities for adults and youth in Calhoun County who identify as LGBTQ+ as well as their families, friends, allies, and residents.
 
The Resource Center offers resources and information, in addition to providing a safe space for meetings and gatherings, including Gayme Nights and Constellations which is a youth group. BC Pride also works at the local political level, especially with Get Out the Vote (GOTV) efforts and candidate forums.
 
While people are aware of the organization and its Resource Center, Spencer says she thinks people don’t have a good understanding of the resources, services, and programming available, particularly for young people. She says this is changing as these youth talk to each other and spread the word.
 
Admission to BC Pride is free.“It’s difficult anyway in our community to communicate. We have a newsletter, meetings, and our youth group,” Langridge says. “We did partner with Kellogg Community College which has a Queer organization called Spectrum and they put on a clothing drive. Visibility is something we concentrate on to let people know we’re here. We are as welcoming and inviting as we can possibly be. We do our best to reach out and let people know that we’re here.”

This visibility extends to the Pride Festival.
 
“That’s how a community gets started and keeps going — meeting, showing up, and seeing somebody in person and talking and listening. The festival gives a lot of people in our community who aren’t ready to come out, a safe space. A girl can hold hands with another girl and no one will think anything of it,” Langridge says. “This is a reflection of our desire to be like everybody else. We are trying to fit in.”