Colin Bennett and a crew of dedicated volunteers are excited to announce the date for the first Deep River Pride Festival on Saturday, Sept. 28. The festival is intended to be a demonstration to benefit and empower members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community (LGBTQ+).

A full day of activities and celebrations has been planned for the event, including a brunch at the Whistle Stop Café and an LGBTQ+ Fall Fling dance exclusively for teens (who will need to show a school ID or equivalent to get in; a $10 donation is requested). In between, there will be music, kid’s activities, speakers, performers, a local filmmaker showing her short film The Misadventures of Being Single, and a number of organizations will be giving out information from 1 to 6 p.m. at the Deep River Historical Society. Following Pride Karaoke at the Whistle Stop Café from 7 to 10 p.m., Bennett will host an after-party at Bennett’s Books.

“We wanted to give LBGT folks the opportunity to celebrate in their hometown, or close to their hometown. Most of the pride festivals are in the cities and its not realistic for everyone to make it there, so we wanted to bring that same opportunity home here to Deep River,” Bennett said.

“LGBTQ+ people still face marginalization and oppression,” Bennett said “We aim to educate against ignorance and hate and to help empower the diverse members of our community. We envision a community characterized by a strong commitment to justice, equality, diversity, inclusion, and compassion. This includes safe and welcoming neighborhoods, workplaces, and schools; stable families; and self-reliant LGBTQ+ individuals. Our goal is to foster communication and education to promote unity, visibility, and dignity and to build and strengthen community connections. Therefore, we aim to produce events and activities that are inclusive, diverse, intersectional, educational, sustainable, self-sufficient and as fun as possible.”

The event has received support from many local businesses, including Bennett’s Books, the Whistle Stop Café, Deep River Pizza, Great Wall Chinese Restaurant, Shore Discount Liquors, Deep River Pizzeria Davinci, and Hally Jo’s, G’s Treasures and gotten additional assistance from the JEDI Center, The Nest Coffee House/A Little Compassion Inc., Celebrations, Compass Rose, and Anchor and Compass.

“It’s been wonderful to have all the volunteers come together to make this happen. We hope that the community of Deep River and the surrounding towns are welcoming to this,” said Bennett. “We have been wanting to do this for years and we finally set the gears in motion and got it together.”

He added, “We are very excited about it and we hope to set an example and encourage other small towns to have their own pride fests. It takes a community to make a community and the town exists because of the people of the town, the citizens, and businesses and we are lucky that this is a welcoming community and we want to share that with others.”

Bennet hopes to create a Valley Pride Center in the future, which will serve as a gay pride center for the entire lower Connecticut River Valley. Currently the closest center is located in New Haven.

“We are always looking to do more, bring more awareness and education and activities to the area for the LGBTQ+ community and beyond,” he said. “This Pride Festival is a great first step and we hope it is successful and well attended.”

For more information, email deepriverpride@gmail.com or find “Deep River Pride Fest” on Facebook.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story stated a parade was scheduled; those plans have been cancelled.