Sean Childers-Gray, festival director for Ogden Pride and president of Ogden Pride’s Board of Directors, told the Standard-Examiner that the theme for this year’s festival, set to take place from Friday to Sunday, is “Decade of Diversity.”

“We’ve got some great, family-friendly, all-ages events that are absolutely free to participate in and enjoy,” he said.

Ogden Pride 2024 will be a festival of firsts, beginning the first day with the festival’s first Queer Prom.

“Join us for an enchanting night under the glittering lights at our Queer Prom, where love is the dress code, and everyone is royalty on the dance floor,” the Ogden Pride website states. “An inclusive celebration of joy, self-expression, and unity awaits!”

The Queer Prom begins at 6 p.m. at the Monarch and is free for all ages.

Childers-Gray said there will also be another big first at this year’s Pride celebration — a march/rally Saturday evening.

“Our intention this year was to try to put a parade together,” he said. “Why not celebrate 10 years with a very fantastic parade down 25th Street? Unfortunately, with logistics and things like that — it wasn’t necessarily a no from anyone, it was just logistics weren’t lining up — so we decided to pivot.”

He said that while there have been rallies tied to Ogden Pride in the past, there was a demand for both a rally and a march this year.

“It’s been something that the community has requested,” he said. “Anything that we’ve done, the community has brought forth those ideas and has really put it in our minds what they want.”

The rally is set for Saturday at 5 p.m. in Lester Park around the Golden Hours Senior Center parking lot. The march begins there at 5:40 p.m. and moves down 25th Street to the Ogden Amphitheater to launch the festival.

Childers-Gray said that this part of the festival takes on a greater meaning, 55 years after the events of Stonewall.

“The rally and march this year is kind of to say, ‘We’re here and we’re not going anywhere,'” he said. “Pride started because of riots. It started because of people who were tired and they started to fight back against the marginalization of us as a community that started the LGBTQ+ civil rights movement. It’s kind of that call to arms that, ‘We’re going to be here and we’re not going anywhere, even with what’s going on in our state, the bans that are coming (for) our youth and things like that.’ … More of a peaceful protest, we’re not looking to be an angry mob, but it’s important to be seen.”

Vendors and other entertainment will also be available at the amphitheater starting at 6 p.m. that evening.

Sunday’s main festival with vendors and entertainment will be at Ogden Amphitheater and Municipal Gardens from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Childers-Gray said there will be one additional event connected to Ogden Pride set for Tuesday at the Pleasant Valley Branch of the Weber County Library at 6:30 p.m.

“We are showing a documentary called ‘There is More to Do,'” he said. “It’s about advocacy. With what we have coming forward for the LGBTQIA Two-Spirit community, they have a lot riding on what’s going on. That is a conversation about advocacy and fighting for what we need to do.”

He added that it’s meaningful to see how the festival has grown over the last decade.

“To see where it started with just a handful of vendors in the amphitheater and maybe 300 in attendance the first … to the last couple of years, we’ve had close to 8,000 in attendance for our events,” he said. “That means so much to me, and to see the milestones we’ve gone through as a community organization, it’s amazing.”

For more information on Ogden Pride, visit https://www.ogdenpride.org/ogden-pride-festival/.