Celebrate Highwood kicked off Pride Month at the sixth annual North Shore Pride Fest on Saturday.
The event featured a day of activities including a picnic, family-friendly drag show and a pub craw.
“We are thrilled to support pride month and our LGBTQ community on the North Shore by inviting everyone across Chicagoland to come celebrate diversity and show their pride on the North side,” said DR Smith, a Celebrate Highwood board member and North Shore Pride Fest event coordinator.
The event began at noon in Everts Park with a picnic that included a bounce house, sidewalk chalk, face painting, lawn games, an ice cream truck and other games.
Later in the day, the festivities moved indoors where hundreds gathered for a drag show at 210 Live that featured performers who entertained to a standing-room only crowd.
Rick Gordon attended the show with his wife Bonnie for the second year in a row.
“I think it’s marvelous for an old, traditional, conservative, community like Highwood to embrace all different lifestyles,” Rick Gordon said.
According to Smith, inspiration for the fest began when a small group of members of the LGBTQ community decided to get together for a pub crawl in 2010.
“Last year the Celebrate Highwood board decided to take over the event to give it more structure, scope and community focus,” Smith said. “We officially added the event to our Celebrate Highwood festival schedule last year.”
Scott Baeseman, who also happens to be Highwood’s 2017 Garlic Fest King, said the best thing about North Shore Pride Fest is that it takes place in a small community. He said it’s time for pride not to be limited to metropolitan centers, “but to be expressed everywhere since we are an important presence in every community.”
A portion of the drag show proceeds were donated to Spectrum Club, an LGBTQ group at Highland Park High School, and Be The Match bone marrow registry.
Pub crawl participants visited such local venues as Ballaro, Santi’s Gardens, The Humble Pub, The Toadstool Pub and The Wooden Nickel.
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This year the North Shore Pride Fest worked with the city to implement the placement of pride flags on poles up and down Sheridan Road in the center of Highwood’s business district. The flags are scheduled to fly throughout the month of June.
“The flags make a statement that Highwood is not just supporting the LGBTQ community for one day, but that they have an ongoing commitment to celebrating the diversity of our community,” Smith said.
Highwood Ald. Eric Falberg said the effort sends a relevant message.
“In these times, with what’s going on in the U.S., you need to show more love and be more active in reaching out to one another,” Falberg said. “If everyone were doing what we are doing in Highwood, the world would be a more peaceful place.”
