Hi-Wire Brewing begins Pride Month with 2024 Pride Fest
The festival is among the first Pride Month celebrations in the Cape Fear this year
WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — On Sunday, hundreds gathered for Pride Fest 2024 at Hi-Wire Brewing. The festival is among the first Pride Month events in Wilmington this year.
Pride Fest this year included a community stage for up-and-coming drag performers, a nonprofit and vendors’ market, drag shows from Wilmington’s prominent drag performers, music, drinks, and more.
Kat Selwyn of Hi-Wire Brewing said this is the fourth Pride Fest the brewery has hosted.
“It’s just kind of who we are. We just love to support the local community and everybody for who they are,” Selwyn said.
Wilmington City Council Member David Joyner attended the festival. He said it’s important to show support for the LGBTQ+ community.
“I try and show up to as many community events as I can, and it’s Pride Month and so i‘m out with the LGBTQ community of which I’m proudly a part of,” Joyner said. “It’s good to see folks in Wilmington, both LGBTQ people in southeastern North Carolina, and allies who are just coming out here to show love, show support, and have a fun pride.”
Christopher Marville is an outreach worker and peer support counselor for Seeds of Healing in Wilmington. The nonprofit is dedicated to providing education and testing for HIV/AIDS, Hep C and Syphilis. Seeds of Healing held a pop-up testing clinic at the festival for anyone to know their status.
“Just trying to give as much information to people as possible, make sure people are protected, make sure people have knowledge about it, because knowledge is power. You know your status, you have power in that situation,” Marville said.
Ed Adams of Silver Pride Circle works to bring aging members of the LGBTQ+ community together to find support.
“For us to be here to help those people, and to keep them from being isolated and alone in one of the outside counties, or just knowing that others of us are here in the same situation, really helps,” Adams said. “It helps us build community, and a gay community. It keeps the culture alive.”
