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Friday, March 29
The Indiana Daily Student

Pride Summerfest entertained and educated this Saturday

Willow Hughes hula hoops on Kirkwood Saturday night at the Bloomington Pride festival. Hughes is a native of Bloomington and works as a hula hooper for The Hudsucker Posse, a flow arts collective.

On one side of the street sat an Indiana advocacy group promoting the separation of church and state. On the other, two teenage volunteers put together colorful bracelets with a group of children.

Pride Summerfest celebrated the LGBT community with live performances, discussions and workshops at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, as well as booths varying from advocacy groups to crafting in the downtown Bloomington area Saturday.

Bloomington Pride has two major events throughout the year, the Pride Film Festival and Pride Summerfest.

The fest was split into two main areas. The street entertainment was at the center, including various live musical performances, acrobats and booths along the street Inside the Buskirk-Chumley Theater. Various workshops and lectures ran throughout the day.

Many of the booths along the street were run by volunteers, both members of Bloomington Pride and those from different advocacy groups.

Summerfest also included various advocacy booths from around Indiana, talking to people passing their booths about their 
organizations.

One of these booths was the group Indiana Competes, an organization that works to sustain Indiana’s economy through supporting legislation in favor of people of all sexual orientations and gender identities. The group encourages people to register to vote and write letters to legislators to pass laws supporting the LGBT community.

Samantha Buente, business ambassador for Indiana Competes, said they encourage people passing by their booth to sign up for their mailing list and to register 
to vote.

“We’re nonpartisan, which is different from a lot of groups,” Buente said. “Typically when they go out to get someone to register to vote it’s to encourage them to vote for a specific side. We just want to keep the conversation going.”

The street entertainment area had booths like Indiana Competes open until 11 p.m.

Inside the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, the day consisted of free yoga, lectures and free HIV testing provided by Positive Link, a program within an IU Health program.

Spencer Biery, a volunteer guiding participants to the HIV testing room, said many of the people who were tested didn’t plan on being tested. He said the convenience of the testing at the celebration made it easier for people to have access to the resource.

“A lot of these people just saw this when they came in and decided to do it,” Biery said. “It’s free here, and it’s important to have that at something like this, because it’s not out of their way.”

There were also various activity booths that focused on fun interactive activities. These booths ranged from face painting to jewelry making. The booths were scattered throughout the street entertainment area.

Elissa Booras, a volunteer at Summerfest, facilitated the Rainbow Jewelry booth. She said the booth was for all ages to make bracelets and other jewelry with beads throughout the day.

“It’s really fun getting to interact with everyone,” Booras said. “It’s like a memory you have of the fest, you have a little souvenir to take away, and it engages people.”

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