The 5th Annual North Jersey Pride Festival brought thousands of people to Memorial Park in Maplewood Sunday for a fun-, food- and music-filled day.
LGBTQ and straight ally individuals, couples and families from all over the state enjoyed national and local music acts, activities for children (including a brand new Interactive Kids Stage with the Lizard Guys), relay races, gymnastics, martial arts demos, and more.
Visitors experienced over 100 exhibitors and merchant/artist vendors plus a Five-Star Food Court featuring local New Jersey eateries.
The festival included performances by star of TV One’s R&B Divas Monifah, finalist and runner-up on NBC’s The Voice Michelle Chamuel, a cappella group RANGE, pop/R&B artist and two-time Apollo winner Queen Ella, acoustic folk-pop duo Hannah & Maggie, the award-winning Paper Mill Show Choir, the Front & Center Showtime Choir and more. Scott Nevins, host of Bravo TV’s The People’s Couch emceed the day.
Several awards were presented: the Outstanding Ally Award was presented by 2014 recipients, Jane and Joe Clementi of the Tyler Clementi Foundation, to Hudson Taylor, CEO and founder of Athlete Ally, an organization activating athletes to support LGBT inclusion and equality. North Jersey Pride also gave out its first Youth Upstander Award and scholarship to Russell Pinzino, a senior at Columbia High School who has volunteered with North Jersey Pride and been a featured speaker/panelist at NJP’s Stand UP Speak OUT school assemblies.
The event followed a full week events from June 7-14 including the North Jersey Pride Run 5K on June 7; an interfaith panel and discussion on June 8; a panel of children of LGBTQ parents on June 10; a screening of “Blackbird” on June 11; a Teen Dance, cosponsored with Bergen PFLAG; the annual Dance for Equality on June 13.
Enjoy our photo gallery; all photos credit Monta Harris. Click on any photo to begin.
