Only here in Minnesota, a little flyover-state shoulder-chip had something to do with it as well. That’s no different here in Minneapolis than it was at Stonewall.
Photo by Larry Kampa, from the Michael McConnell files, used courtesy of the Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies, University of Minnesota Libraries What better opportunity than this to talk to some of the people who’ve made Pride what it is over these last five decades to find out how the festival became what it is-and where it’s headed. “By next year, it will be like a whole new organization, so we’re really taking the Past, Present, Future thing to heart,” Foster says.
That’s especially true within the Pride organization: After more than a decade, executive director Dot Belstler will retire at the end of the 2022, and the nonprofit is bringing on a slew of new board members and volunteers. “Because it’s going to be a really big year of changes,” says board chairman Felix Foster. To honor its 50th anniversary (and glorious return to form after two years of COVID-19-modified events), Twin Cities Pride chose the 2022 theme Past, Present, and Future. You’d almost certainly be surprised to know that for the better part of the last decade, it’s had just one salaried employee, working with an army of volunteers to coordinate hundreds of vendors and bring out nearly a 500,000 people each year. You’d hardly be able to tell that the festival got its start as a 50-person protest 50 years ago this year. And then, of course, the Twin Cities Pride Festival itself, held June 25-26 throughout Loring Park-a weekend-long celebration and march culminating in a huge show at the Armory headlined by Carly Rae Jepsen. It would be a feat to attend every Pride event in the Twin Cities in 2022.įlip Phone XXL at First Avenue.