Drag shows, live music to highlight Dixon’s first Pride Festival on Saturday

DIXON - Dixon’s first Pride Festival will be livening up the downtown Saturday.

The festival will take place from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. in the 300 block of West First Street in front of Val’s Place and the municipal parking lot on the northwest corner of South Peoria Avenue.

The event will begin at 4 p.m. with a drag show, followed by a performance from Illinois band Invisible Cartoons around 6:30 p.m. and a second drag show at 9:30 p.m. including Naysha Lopez, a drag performer from Chicago who competed on the RuPaul’s Drag Race show.

Festival organizer Andrew Glasscock, who’s been Pride Festival director in the Quad Cities for more than 15 years, said the event will also have 50 vendors on site and the event is open to all ages.

A group of about a dozen volunteers worked to build the festival during the last six months, from marketing and entertainment to also finding 50 sponsors from throughout the community to support the event, Glasscock said.

“The response has been over the top, which is excellent, and we appreciate the support,” he said. “We welcome the community to come celebrate pride with us.”

Festival admission is $5 for adults and $3 for those 12 and younger.

Pride festivals are events celebrating the self-acceptance, achievements, overcoming obstacles and legal rights of people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, nonbinary and queer.