AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF)– We’re checking in today with Augusta Pride as that group gets ready for its first full scale festival since 2019.
June is Pride Month, and Augusta is getting ready to celebrate Pride Weekend. Augusta Pride is here to tell us about it. We’ve got Lonzo Smith who is the past President of the organization and Michael Barnard Jenkins, who is the current President of Augusta Pride.
And as Jenkins explains, they have been putting a lot of work into this!
“We had a whole year, plus the parade’s coming back this year, so I’m super excited. And we’ve already started anticipating a larger attendance than last year. So super excited to see it coming back in the city of Augusta.
“The Augusta Pride Parade is a really big deal. It’s very well attended, lots of support, lots of different groups are in it. And you see everything downtown. It’s so fun, the different costumes, and all the colors. And the colors are significant, especially when we’re talking about the rainbow flag. So this year’s color is purple. The color that Gilbert Baker originally created in ’78, the purple signifies spirit or soul which leads into this year’s theme for Augusta Pride which is Pride & Soul. So it has to do a little bit with the rainbow and purple, but we figured we would have some fun with it this year ’cause we are the soul city, home of James Brown.”
Smith adds that people always look forward to Beats on Broad.
“We have, in addition to the parade and festival, we have Beats on Broad, which is Friday, which is the largest outdoor dance party. It runs from six to midnight. We turn the Augusta Common into a dance club. And it is amazing. I mean we have performances, we have a fashion show put on by Vintage Ooollee. There will be people just dancing and having a great time. Thursday, we have the President’s Soiree, which Michael gets everybody dressed up and we have a good time, and that’s going to be at Sacred Heart. And then Tuesday, tell ’em about the kickoff, we have at Savannah River.”
For more information, click here.
