Big Island community comes together to ‘Celebrate Life!’ during annual Pride Festival

Is there any better way to celebrate life than your birthday?

Marilyn Rose estimated that by about shortly after 1:30 p.m. Saturday she had already gotten to celebrate her 69th birthday with a couple of thousand people.

There was still about an hour and a half to go until the afternoon’s festivities were finished, and people were still coming out in droves for the special day of rainbow connections and more.

Rose was a volunteer for the 2024 installment of the Hawai‘i Island LGBTQ+ Pride Festival. She was among several people working the organization’s information booth during the event from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Mo‘oheau Park and Bandstand in downtown Hilo.

This year’s festival theme was “Celebrate Life!” in honor of one of the organization’s dear friends and Pride organizing committee member Greg “Sister Buffy” Lutpon, who died in February.

The rainbow-colored islands in the logo represent the diversity of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, plus community and the pink signifies the energy Lupton brought to all of the organization’s endeavors.

“Sister Buffy’s favorite color was pink, and she could always be spotted at queer events by her striking pink leopard-patterned outfits and, of course, her fabulous pink goatee,” said Hawai‘i Island LGBTQ+ Pride in announcing this year’s festivities, adding that Lupton was a “master at celebrating life.”

The bright rainbow lives of every type of community member were celebrated on Saturday.

Rose was celebrating with a good attitude and by taking pictures of all the great outfits on display — and there were some good ones, from tutus and tie-dyed shirts to rainbow knee-high socks with shiny blue skirts and Victorian wigs with pastel-colored curls, with just about everything in between.

She also has a Pride flag hanging at home, and Saturday was, after all, her birthday.

“So it’s a big celebration for me,” said Rose.

Everywhere you looked, the party was hopping. Bands serenaded the masses from the stage in the bandstand. Vendors sold their wares under rainbows and glitter.

Organizations of every kind offering services and information about a variety of topics from health care to the Mauna Kea observatories were also on hand.

Aerial Arts Hawai‘i had some high-flying acts swirling around through the air as bubbles floated by, and several furry friends graced the festival grounds with their humans to show their support, too.

Drag queens, including Priscilla Nasty getting all nasty in her leopard print bodysuit and leather knee-high boots, lip-synched their faces off and shook their booties to the delight of large crowds cheering and applauding them along.

Diversity was on display in several different senses of the word.

Friends and family came together to have fun. Smiles and hugs were commonplace and given out freely. There was joy, laughter, happiness, inclusiveness and acceptance.

These attributes lend themselves to celebration.

“Everybody just seems really up and happy and smiling, conversant, pleasant,” Rose said. “I haven’t seen one negative person.”

Even when there were blemishes to the overall positive and uplifting vibes of the day — two men stood on the sidewalk outside the park along Kamehameha Avenue holding signs that read “Jesus said go and sin no more” and “Repent or Perish” while saying other anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric during the festival — people chose to dance and celebrate around them instead of engage them in disdain.

“I feel like I’m in a space now that I am an adult where I get to authentically be myself,” said Hayley Lee of Hilo, who attended Saturday’s festival with her husband Michael. “It’s really cool to be surrounded by so much love and by so many people who also just want to live their lives authentically and just be themselves and be true to who they are.”

She wasn’t expecting to become emotional, but her voice waivered and she fought back tears talking about how she was celebrating life Saturday.

It was a nice change being in a space that was so loving, just trying to take in all that positive energy and seeing people smiling and laughing instead of the ugliness you hear on the news nowadays or even on the sidewalk behind her and her husband.

The Lees enjoyed seeing all the different arts and crafts, food vendors, performers and artists on display throughout the afternoon while they were at the festival. They had the most fun just being together with everyone.

At the end of the day, it was all about supporting each other and making sure everyone knew they were there for one another.

“It’s really awesome that we can still come together and just be happy and enjoy the fact that we all live on this Earth together and we all share it together and we all are happy to be here together,” Lee said. “That’s something I think is really special.”