Drag performances, live music, auction highlight Pride Festival

By Joshua Kornfeld • June 23, 2025 1:30 am

Bainbridge Pride kicked off this year’s festival and celebration June 21, featuring drag performances, live music, a silent auction, various activities and a plethora of food and vendor options.

What started in 2016 as a small group of community members gathering on a picnic blanket at Waterfront Park has turned into a larger festival over the last few years.

“In 2016, there was no Pride festival. There was no Trans Day of Remembrance. In November, there was no queer bingo at the Senior Center,” Eve Palay said, member of the BI Pride board. “We have, in these years, built a number of events that have just become part of the fabric of Bainbridge Island.”

This year’s festival also included a silent auction, which event organizer Emily Patterson said received over $11,000 in donations. One of the goals of the proceeds of the silent auction will go to supporting community programming throughout the year, in addition to supporting next year’s festival, she said. Patterson said community members have shared with her the gap in LGBTQIA+ youth programming throughout the year.

57 vendors and 20 volunteers supported the festival this year.

“Two years ago, I felt like I was kind of screaming for attention, and now I just kind of had to knock a little bit, and people were coming to us,” Patterson said. “But the response has been significantly better this year, and I think that the political climate is really (ticking) people off enough to make them feel like they can’t not support us.”

Palay said Pride wouldn’t have come together without the support and hard work of board president and festival co-chair, Derek Villaneuva, and Lyn Flowers, Pride board member and festival co-chair.

“It’s just so much bigger and better than it was when we were just around a picnic blanket,” Palay said. “I think that the organizers…do a really beautiful job of showing their hearts and the hearts of the people and community, and that’s why I continue to help do this,” she said.

Patterson shared how this year’s festival compared to previous years.

“The depth of involvement and care in the number of people that are involved this year is a lot broader than it had been in the past. We have a lot more volunteers than we’ve ever had before”, she said. “We have businesses that have come out and asked how they can help in ways that are obviously financial, but also volunteering and things like that. So I’ve seen a much larger outpouring of support, really eager downtown Bainbridge businesses to put flyers up and give to the site.”

23rd Legislative District Rep. Greg Nance, who represents Bainbridge Island, shared his support for Pride at the festival.

“We are gathered here this afternoon, not just in celebration, but in solidarity, in a moment in time when a federal administration seeks to claw back our hard-earned rights and freedoms. We stand as a community to say no, not on our watch. Here in this community, in this state, we know that love is love, and we respect every neighbor, no matter their orientation. We are here because love is love.”