BRADENTON, Fla. | The Manatee Pride Festival will hold its seventh annual outing March 21 from 12-5 p.m. at the Bradenton Riverwalk Pavilion to raise funds for LGBTQ youth.
Manatee Pride seeks to uplift and empower members of the LGBTQ community who live in, love and visit Bradenton and the greater Manatee County area. It serves as a fundraiser for Prism Youth Initiative, the nonprofit dedicated to providing services for LGBTQ youth throughout the county since 2010.
“It’s really incredible to enter our seventh year,” Prism Youth Initiative Board President and Manatee Pride Committee Chair Valerie Fisher says. “I don’t think when we first started doing this that we had any idea how well-received we would be and how popular our festival would become.”
Last year’s celebration welcomed an estimated 2,500 attendees, a number impacted by inclement weather near their location, and previous festivals have seen up to 4,000. Fisher says organizers expect at least as many supporters as they saw in 2019, come rain or shine.
More than 50 vendors are expected and festivities begin at noon. The celebration will once again open with a blessing from the LGBTQ-affirming Church of the Trinity MCC, also this year’s event sponsor.
The festival’s entertainment will follow throughout the day, featuring live music, drag performances and more led by fan favorite entertainer and emcee Beneva Fruitville. “We’re very much looking forward to her returning as our hostess with the mostess again this year,” Fisher says. “She’s been at every Pride with us.”
“I’m thrilled to have been a part of Manatee Pride since its inception and hosting this year is the icing on the cake,” Fruitville adds. “This event has been such a source of happiness and inclusion for the entire community and I am super proud to volunteer with them.”
The future of Prism Youth Initiative will also be discussed during this year’s festival. Fisher says the organization will officially announce its planned merger with ALSO Youth, the Sarasota-based nonprofit of which she is also a board member. The organization was founded in 1992 and exists to empower LGBTQ youth.
“We’ll be making the official announcement at Pride,” Fisher explains. “The goal is to expand services for youth in Manatee County; the resources that we’re able to generate through Manatee Pride will be reserved and spent on the youth here. I personally am very excited about it.”
Fisher adds that the mission of Manatee Pride remains to empower the area’s LGBTQ youth. “We may not be the biggest Pride, but it’s a fun day for everybody and always has been,” she says. “We try to make sure it stays family friendly; it gives the rest of Manatee County the opportunity to participate with us and see that we’re just like them.”
The seventh annual Manatee Pride will be held Saturday, March 21 from 12-5 p.m. For more information, visit ManateePride.com.
