What to Expect from Aurora Pride

Aurora Pride is here, and it’s the first year the city will be celebrating its queer residents. Like most of the other metro area cities, Aurora wants a chance to celebrate what makes their city unique, diverse, and a welcoming spot for the LGBTQ community. 

Aurora Pride will be held at the Aurora Municipal Center, located at 1515 Alameda Parkway in Aurora on August 5, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. There will be food trucks, drinks, live entertainment, goodies, freebies, and Pride memorabilia.

Giving Back

Aurora Pride is going to be donating 100 percent of the proceeds to OUT FRONT Foundation, the nonprofit setting up the celebration. 

“This is a philanthropic effort,” said Christopher LaFleur, Director of Development for OUT FRONT Foundation and the man behind the event. “The whole point is to empower kids in diverse communities with self expression and quality education. Aurora Pride will be a fundraiser for Power Gala, where we will give away our first scholarships.”

The foundation plans to provide scholarships to young LGBTQ high school seniors in underserved communities who are looking to attend college and study journalism or the arts. Specifics about the scholarships, including how many and how much, will be decided once proceeds from the event are tallied up. 

Entertainment

Aurora Pride will host two stages, one for adults and one that is family-friendly. Plenty of entertainment is booked for the event, including a full day of DJs and drag queens. Some of the big local names already confirmed are Blondetourage, DJ Escal8, Jody Bouffard, DJ Sinna-G, Jessica L’Whor, Lady Sativa, and plenty more. Some of the queens will be putting on more provocative performances on the adult stage, while others will be keeping it PG. There will be music all day throughout the festival. 

Food and Drinks 

This Pride is in a park outside of the city’s center, but that doesn’t mean there will be any shortage of food food and drinks. The event will feature plenty of food trucks, as well as a beer garden for those 21 and up who purchase a wristband. Everyone who buys a wristband will get one free drink ticket. Busch is sponsoring the beer garden, so expect your free drink and other reasonably priced beverages from the Busch company. 

Pride Gear and Memorabilia 

One of the best parts of coming to Pride is getting a bunch of crazy souvenirs. Just like other events, Aurora Pride will have flags and all kinds of colorful gear for sale. You can never have enough, so be sure to wear your gear from Denver Pride and then stock up on some more. 

Come to Make Friends 

Unlike big events like Denver Pride, where hundreds of throusands of queers take over Denver, Aurora Pride will be a little more intimate.. This makes it a great opportunity for meeting your neighbors and start building a community.  

“A huge part of this event is mingling communities together, and bringing the business leaders, nonprofits, etc. to meet all those same people in Aurora,” said LaFleur. “We want to bring these people together and see what they can accomplish after they meet each other because of this event.”

“It doesn’t make sense that every other city in Colorado has a pride but the third largest city in colorado does not,” LaFleur added. “It’s exciting to see how the community has rallied around this effort.”