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Over 700 people took to Market Street in Denton on Saturday, June 7, to celebrate Pride Month with the annual Caroline Pride Festival. This was the five-year anniversary of Caroline County’s first Pride event in 2020.
The very first Pride Festival looked very different than Saturday’s display. It grew out of the idea to expand the “safe space” that the former Niche’s Coffee Shop in Downtown Denton provided for LGBTQ+ people. But because of the COVID-19 pandemic, CEO of Caroline Pride Angel Perez said the team who were working to organize an in-person Pride event that year had to quickly pivot to an all-virtual celebration. “We had a little Facebook Live where we had performances, poetry readers, and speakers,” Perez said. But on June 12, 2021, Caroline County was finally able to host a true Pride Festival.
Perez and another Pride organizer, Rebecca Hutchison, each noted the impact that the first Pride Festival had on locals, young and old, who felt ostracized in Caroline County because of their sexuality. “It's saving lives. People can see they aren’t alone. They can see that there's some acceptance…the very first year we had this, an older man came up to us and he told Angel that he lived here for 63 years, and that was the first day that he felt welcome,” Hutchison said.
“The first Festival was very small, but the second Festival we received so much support,” Perez said, “We grew so much the second year… it was insane. Over the years we’ve kept the same amount of vendors [from the second year], between 90 and 95. Now it seems like we are a very established event.”
For 2025, the Caroline Pride Festival organizers let the attendees’ desires and the needs of the local community guide some changes, such as giving the Drag Queens more time to perform, inviting a recent NCHS graduate, Collin Christopher, to speak, and having a kids area with bouncehouses and facepainting. Planning for the next year’s Pride Festival starts “from the time it’s over,” according to Hutchison.
One of the main goals of Caroline Pride Festival is to bring together available resources for LGBTQ+ people. The Maryland LGBTQ+ Chamber of Commerce was there to spread the word about their organization and the support it offers, “we're a statewide chamber of commerce that works with businesses that are LGBTQ+ owned, operated or allied,” said a representative, “And we bring them together through education, advocacy and networking to help them grow their business. Then we come out and about to festivals like this and let people know we exist!” She said the hope is to provide “strength in numbers” to these businesses.
Other tents were manned by vendors, community organizations, and local businesses. Christ Episcopal Church has been setting up at the Caroline County Pride Festival for "four years now.” The church attends the Caroline Pride Festival to show that “All are welcome to come to our church. We have no barriers whatsoever…we should encourage all people to be included. God created all of us.” Shore United Bank has also been a supporter of Caroline Pride from the beginning, and serves as one of the largest sponsors of the event, “It's so much fun having everyone come by… seeing the different kinds of people that we have, like, not only in the town, but the people that do their business with us,” they said. “It's really important to have a staple in the community that supports pride, diversity, and, you know, just being yourself.”
For many, the family-friendly atmosphere is key to what makes the Caroline Pride Festival so persistant in the face of those who disagree with the event’s premise, “I think people realize that this pride is family friendly,” said Hutchison, “I think the more years we have it and the more people see it’s family-friendly and it’s just fun, it really helps.”
Perez is no stranger to adversity. He shared that while growing up in Puerto Rico, he faced bullying due to his identity, “I decided in middle and high school not to go to the cafeteria to get breakfast or lunch, so I would starve all day until I got home, because that was the moment where most of the time I was bullied, like people throwing food on my face or pushing me out of the chair. It was horrible,” he said. “So Pride to me means the opportunity to be myself…I think it's in my hands to create a legacy where the next generation can feel like they're welcome and they belong in this community.” Perez said he hopes that events like the Caroline Pride Festival will show Caroline County’s youth that “You're welcome here…you don't have to graduate from high school and leave the county because you don't feel you don't belong here.”
“It's amazing that something like this is not only happening, but happening in Caroline County, on the streets of Denton. This is year five, and I am just proud,” said Michelle, a Caroline Pride volunteer, “it's about inclusion and understanding and love and acceptance and all of the things.”
During his opening speech, Perez told the crowd at Caroline Pride Festival “It’s been five years since the day we decided to put together this event in Caroline County. A lot of people thought ‘we don’t want them to make it’, and five years later, here we are, celebrating diversity, celebrating equity, inclusion and pride in our community.” Perez told the festival attendees, “Your identity matters.”
