I attended the Kansas City Pride Festival, which took place June 7-9.
The festival was a lot of fun, but I did experience a few inconveniences along the way.
The cost of my hotel stay increased significantly compared to last year.
I ran into difficulty when I arrived at Theis Park on Friday, the first day of the festival.
A security guard informed me that I couldn’t enter with my backpack, because only small or transparent bags were allowed.
I had to walk several blocks back to my hotel, at which point, I decided it wasn’t worth making the trek to the park and back again for a second time that evening.
The new security rules weren’t shared with guests before they arrived at the park.
I later learned changes were made to festival policies following a mass shooting earlier this year, following a Super Bowl victory parade for the Kansas City Chiefs.
One person was killed and more than 20 were injured during the shooting.
As I waited for the pride parade on Saturday, I realized, to my dismay, that a porta-potty, conveniently placed a block away from the parade route, had been removed.
The porta-potty had been present during previous years.
I find it likely the restroom had been overseen by a different organization than the one that organized the pride festival.
I wanted to use a restroom right before the parade began, but I had to wait until the parade was finished.
Thankfully, I didn’t have to cut my parade watching short to find a restroom.
I recorded video of the Pride Parade, which featured interesting floats and lots of colorful pride flags.
I published a separate video of a Pro-Palestinian Protest that took place at the end of the parade.
I discussed the protest in a previous article.
After the parade, I went the festival, where acrobats from KC Aerial Arts glided gracefully through the air.
I created a video of some of their performances, which were set to music.
I created a video of some of the entertainers at the festival, which you can watch on YouTube.
Kerri Colby, a trans woman who competed in RuPaul’s Drag Race, performed on stage. Her performance was sexy enough that you might not want to watch the video if you’re at work.
As always, I paid attention to the pride flags at the festival.
The rainbow and progress pride flags were very common. The Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride Flag made a few appearances as well.
Pansexual, bisexual, transgender, and nonbinary pride flags were also very common, but not as widespread as the rainbow flags.
There were several lesbian and genderfluid flags, but they weren’t as common as the flags mentioned above.
If you want to learn more about these flags, and the identities they represent, you should check out an article I wrote about the flags that appeared in this year’s Little Apple Pride Parade.
I plan to discuss the less common flags from this year’s Kansas City Pride Festival in a separate article.
I observed a few memorable outfits and accessories.
I noticed a skirt in the colors of the genderfluid flag, and a rainbow skirt.
I noticed a few people wearing shirts that read, “I turn mascs into bottoms.”
I also observed someone in the parade displaying a parasol in the colors of the trans flag.
On Sunday, I played Palette Quest, a table top role playing game, similar to Dungeons and Dragons, at the festival's gaming tent.
Our Dungeon Master, Sarah Sackett, created the game, herself.
In the game, another player and I brokered peace between a town and a flock of nearby crows.
My Pride Outfits
This year, I painted my nails in rainbow colors.
On Saturday, I wore a shirt with a rainbow phoenix that I purchased from Second Wind, a worker-owned company that reviews video games.
The shirt works quite well as a pride outfit.
In this close-up photo, you can easily see my transgender button, my pin of a dragon cradling a genderfluid heart, and one of my genderfluid earrings.
You can learn more about my LGBT button collection in an article I wrote earlier this year.
I took a photo in front of the butterfly lights with my rainbow Lambda Legal fan.
At the end of the day Saturday, I took a selfie as I got ready to leave the park.
On Sunday, I wore my colorful butterfly shirt.
I posed for a picture in front of the butterfly lights wearing my butterfly shirt, while holding my nonbinary fan off to the side.
The Drive Home
On the drive home, I was surprised when one of my tires blew out on the Kansas Turnpike on I-70.
I pulled over to the side of the road, and called 911 for assistance.
Thankfully, an officer was dispatched to replace my destroyed tire with my spare.
I was glad to receive the assistance, but I was quite bewildered during the whole experience.
I paid for a new tire to be installed the next week.
I had fun during the trip, but I definitely ran into unexpected difficulties along the way.
If you read this far, you might enjoy my article about last year's KC Pride Festival.
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