Vendors and organization booths lined the streets of Kirkwood Avenue at Bloomington's 13th annual Pridefest Saturday from 2-11 p.m.
The event included activities such as musical performances, drag shows, local art vendors and food trucks. Also featured was a WWE-style wrestling street show by Rival Showdown — a group of professional wrestlers — in a makeshift arena on Kirkwood Avenue with a roaring crowd of Bloomington residents gathered around it.
Several local organizations supporting the LGBTQ+ community hosted booths during the festival. The lineup included a gender-affirming closet — housed by the First Christian Church of Bloomington and ran by Bloomington Pride — and the Indiana chapter of Free Mom Hugs, which offer services as parental stand-ins for members of the queer community.
Jamie Pittman, leader of Indiana’s chapter of the organization, led the volunteer booth at this year's festival. The national organization started in 2015 with a goal to help members of the LGBTQ+ community through events and support, especially those without accepting parents. In addition to event work, the group offers parental figures of support at important life events like weddings or proms.
At the Pridefest, volunteers offered hugs, high-fives and fist bumps, reminiscent of the organization's name.
Pittman said she thought it was important for queer kids or young adults to have at least one accepting adult in their lives.
“Everyone deserves to be loved," Pittman said. “And it’s 2026; I think even now it’s even more important that people see it.”
Event organizer and board chair of Bloomington Pridefest Cale Ulery said Pride Fest helps give visibility to members of the LGBTQ+ community, even amid political and religious pushback.
“We have to just keep pushing,” Ulery said. “No matter how far they push back.”
Ulery said that in Bloomington he’s been lucky to receive little contention against Pridefest, but there are always some harmless opposers at the event such as rowdy students or fraternity members. However, he said he is always fearful about the possibility of harsher circumstances.
Bloomington’s Pridefest stage offers a space exclusively for queer artists, like the Quarryland Men’s Chorus and Jennifer Femme who both performed throughout the day at different times on the event's main stage on the intersection of Kirkwood Ave. and Washington St.
Alongside seven musical performances, there were two drag shows during the festival. The first one took place at 3:00 p.m. and was considered a more classic drag show with dancing and singing. The second one at 8:00 p.m. was more burlesque style — which can be a bit more provocative in nature — with headliner Ciara Myst, a competitor in Season 18 of “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”
Although Ulery doesn’t know why the organizers for Pridefest originally started celebrating in August rather than during Pride Month in June like most other festivals, he appreciates that the later festival allows people to celebrate in other ways and places during June. He said he encourages people to go to bigger cities and parades during Pride Month, with the hope that they will come back and celebrate in Bloomington during August.
“It’s a fun, like, second Pride in the year because we do it in August,” Marc Hert, Bloomington resident and attendee, said.
Hert said that he appreciates how family friendly Bloomington’s pride is because more people can attend and appreciate the festival.
There were many family-friendly booths appropriate for kids, like face painting and the Pipsqueakery animal rescue and sanctuary. The animal shelter brought several of their animals including rats, a pigeon and Melvin the goat. The organization was there to enjoy Pridefest since many of their volunteers and staff are part of the queer community, Amy Clark said, sanctuary medical manager and rabbit wrestler for the shelter.
Clark said she thinks it’s important for their organization to attend Pride.
“Animal rights and human rights are linked,” Clark said. “So, it’s very important for us to show up.”
Mark Hart, an attendee at the festival, said he thought Pridefest can help people feel welcomed in the community by being with like-minded people around them. He said it was his first time coming to Bloomington Pride, and it made him feel accepted and confident in himself.
“It’s like community and just banding together to make each other feel okay and accepted, and that we’re not alone,” Hart said.
