ST. GEORGE — Pride events return to the St. George area starting this week after the pandemic prompted their cancellation last year. The annual LGBTQ+ celebration also returns with a change, as events will be spread out over several days and held outside, with the exception of Pride of Southern Utah’s signature drag show.
“We’re not doing the one big festival this year,” said Katie Perkins, Pride of Southern Utah’s executive director.
Events will start Friday with a comedy night at the Electric Theater, followed by “Family Night” on Saturday at Pine View Park in Washington City and various other events on separate days wrapping up with the “Dragalicious Drag Show” on Sept. 25. A full calendar of events is listed at the end of this article.
Pride of Southern Utah has strived to keep its events free to the public and family friendly, Perkins said. The exceptions to this are the Dragalicious show, which is only for those over 21 due to alcohol being served, as well as the comedy and scuba night events. The latter two events are being held by separate entities that approached Pride of Southern Utah to be a part of the celebration this season.
While people can still get tickets for the comedy night and scuba night events, the Sept. 25 drag show has sold out.
Members of the LGBTQ+ community and their allies also have a chance to celebrate pride through having a rainbow flag placed in front of their homes for Southern Utah Pride Week.
The flags are a part of Project Rainbow, a campaign to promote LGBTQ+ visibility and support. Money from the flag rentals – which runs $15 – is pooled into a grant fund that community LGBTQ+ groups can apply for.
The flags will be set up between Sept. 19-26. Pride of Southern Utah is looking for volunteers to help with setting up and retrieving the flags.
“We will desperately be needing volunteers to help pull this monumental project off,” a post on the groups Facebook page states.
Interested volunteers for Project Rainbow can apply here.
Around 180 rainbow flags were displayed across Southern Utah in 2020, Perkins said, with nearly the same number being requested so far this year.
Dates and times of Pride events in Southern Utah being held this month are listed below:
- Sept. 10: Comedy Night at the Electric Theater at 7 p.m. | 68 E Tabernacle St., St. George | Ticketed event
- Sept. 11: Family Night at Pine View Park at 4:30 p.m. | 2050 S. Alveo Drive, Washington City
- Sept. 12: Lake Day at Quail Lake from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. | 5300 West, Hurricane
- Sept. 17: Scuba Night at the St. George City Pool from 5:30-8:30 p.m. | 250 E. 700 South, St. George | RVSP to attend
- Sept. 19: Interfaith event at Highland Park at 7 p.m. | 1250 Highland Parkway, Washington City
- Sept 25: Dragalicious (21+) at Silver Reef Brewing Co. at 7:30 p.m. | 4391 Enterprise Drive, St. George | Event sold out
Additional information can be found on Pride of Southern Utah’s Facebook and Instragram pages.
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