Uniting Pride’s Celebrating Pride festival lit up the crowd at Rose Bowl Tavern on Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. The party began with a drag story hour, followed by drag artists’ and musicians’ performances.

Drag king Spank Knightly read from “Julian Is a Mermaid,” “Dare to Be Daring” and “Just Like My Family.”

Madison Palmer, Uniting Pride executive director and a Champaign-Urbana resident, said she aims to diversify the audience at the organization’s events. According to Palmer, she would like to gain the presence of groups not traditionally involved in these events, like families, rural communities and people of color.

Palmer said that her favorite part of the festival was the drag show.

“I think it’s really good exposure for people to see that drag performers and queer people are regular people that want to have fun,” Palmer said.

The drag show, hosted by drag king Buck Sallday, included performances from Sallday, Knightly, Sparkling Sapphire and Ceduxion Carrington.

Guest Aaron Marulanda, a C-U resident, said the drag show was like nothing he’d ever seen before.

“I noticed there was a lot of involvement within the crowd, which I don’t see in a lot of places, and I just thought it was so self-expressive, like they were really being themselves up there,” Marulanda said.

After the drag show, music artists Caspian June, Lys Allen and Mars Hojilla each delivered solo performances.

Guest Brooklyn Laake, a Bloomington-Normal resident, said she visited Champaign for the event. She said she loves C-U’s queer scene because it’s easy to be around and there are a lot of people who are “very out.”

“Pride month is about the community; it’s about making friends, it’s about sharing in the ways that we love and it’s about being open about what we love to do and who we are,” Laake said.

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