'Collective resilience': Athens Pride Parade returns, promises to be bigger and better

As Athens’ inaugural Pride Parade was unfolding a year ago, organizers didn’t really know what to expect in terms of participation or turnout, but they were pleasantly surprised when thousands lined downtown’s streets for the festivities.

“Last year, we didn’t expect much participation at all and we ended up with a lot, including a crowd of over 3,000 people, so we’re hopeful that this year it will be bigger and better,” said Cameron Jay Harrelson, president emeritus of the Athens Pride & Queer Collective and the parade’s director.

This year’s parade, set for 2 p.m. Saturday, should indeed be bigger and better as there will be close to 50 parade participants, including floats, motorcades, vehicles and walking groups.

“One thing I say all the time about our walking groups is that it’s a great reflection of how Pride started – as a march, a call to ideas and beliefs, and people gathering in the streets and marching,” said Harrelson. “It’s really cool to see how many groups come together and walk.

“And last year, once that last float passed, everyone watching the parade filed into the line and became part of the parade. That’s a testament that this is a parade, but it’s also a march for rights, visibility and change. They all go well together.”

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'A powerful testament to our collective resilience'

“The Athens Pride Parade will always stand as a powerful testament to our collective resilience, unity and unwavering commitment to equity and equality,” said Danielle Bonanno, president of Athens Pride & Queer Collective, in a news release. “It is a time for us to celebrate and proudly affirm our identities, forging a path towards a community where love and acceptance reign supreme.”

The parade is expected to last an hour and will line up on Hull Street, then head to Clayton Street before turning on College Avenue and winding down on Hancock Avenue, ending at the Classic Center Pavilion on Foundry Street.

“It starts on Hull Street, but my suggestion is to line Clayton Street from Hull to College Avenue and from College to Hancock Avenue,” said Harrelson. “The rainbow crosswalk area (at Clayton and College) is a good center point.”

The Classic Center Pavilion will be the site of the Resource Festival, with more than 45 nonprofits and resource-providing vendors on site, along with music, dance performances, the Books for Keeps bus and a number of food trucks. The event is scheduled to end at 6 p.m.

Striving for bigger and better

For Harrelson, who established the popular “Classic City Crime” podcast in 2020, it is not an huge exaggeration to say that organizers have been plotting the second Pride Parade almost as soon as the first one was over.

“Last year, we thought we’d have 500 people, and when you have 3,000 show up for an event, you really have a lot of work to do in looking back at what you could have done differently and better,” he said. “Last year we did a full survey of people who came to the parade, people who participated in the parade and people who sponsored the parade. We asked what they loved, what they hated and what can we do better next year?

"Within two weeks of last year’s parade, our board got into a room and read those survey results, of which there were more than 150 responses and figured out what we could do better, like providing water and shortening the lineup time because it was a little long for people waiting for the parade to start.”

The 2023 edition of the Pride Parade will honor four grand marshals, including Harrelson, who announced in April he’d been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and is undergoing treatment.

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Other grand marshals include Annette Hatton, the founder of Athens Pride and GLOBES at the University of Georgia.

“We made her a grand marshal last year, and I said as long as we have this parade I feel like our founder should be in our grand marshal lineup,” said Harralson.

Chaplain Cole Knapper, a community advocate, and Raiden Washington, one of the recipients of the 2023 Athens Pride & Queer Collective Trans Surgery Scholarship, round out the grand marshals.

When asked how he felt about being named a grand marshal, Harrelson said, “I’m excited. It’s awe-inspiring to me. When I came to Athens, I was severely in the closet and didn’t know who I was or what I wanted to do with my life.

“The past 10 years of being here has been all about finding myself, and once I found myself, it’s been about helping people on their journey of finding themselves. To see that quantified as being named a grand marshal is one of the greatest honors or my adult life. I’m extremely humble,  but greatly honored.”

For more information about the Pride Parade, visit www.athenspride.org/parade.

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Athens Pride Parade returns after successful first year