DANVILLE — Vermilion County Pride Coalition will host its third annual Pridefest celebration at Ellsworth Park in Danville on Saturday. The event will kick off at 10:15 a.m. with guided yoga and continue into the afternoon with appearances from local musicians, artists and drag performers.
Lacy Miller, the president of VCPC, said she founded the organization out of necessity. The first Pridefest was a small-scale event in 2022, but it has since grown.
“Nobody else was going to do it, so we decided that we would,” she said. “It was just at a store. But then we were like, ‘We could do this on a bigger scale,’ and here we are.”
In the past, the event has been held in downtown Danville, but due to the ongoing demolition of Bresee Tower, the organizers decided to move it to Ellsworth Park.
Miller said Pridefest has been “shockingly well received” so far, meeting little resistance in the process of organizing it. She also said that while VCPC has gained sponsorships from several local businesses, it has received no support from Danville’s City Council.
“We’re the only event that our mayor has not come to, which is interesting,” she said. “He usually is pretty good about going to local events, but he does not come to Pride.”
IPM News reached out to Mayor Rickey Williams, Jr., about his alleged lack of support and attendance at Pride events. In an email response, he said, “I wish the organizers & participants of the 2025 VC Pride Fest a beautiful & peaceful day filled with love & fun!”
As a lifelong resident of Vermillion County, Miller said the opportunity to organize and attend Pride events in her hometown has been an emotional experience.
“I’m a big crybaby, and I basically cried the whole first Pride, because as a queer kid that grew up here, it’s wild for me to see,” she said. “We’ve actually had some elder queer folks reach out to us and just thank us profusely for doing it, because it’s something that they never thought they would see.”
The Pridefest events take place in Danville, but Vermilion County Pride Coalition aims to be inclusive of the county’s many rural towns, because queer people in those areas have even less support, said Bonnie Marrow, one of VCPC’s vice presidents.
“Danville is still 75 years in the past, but those rural towns, I don’t even know what’s happening in that mindset. So these queer kids, they need this,” she said. “The rural towns have little to nothing, and that’s where we have to really wave the flag.”
There were 932 anti-LGBTQ+ incidents in the U.S. between May 1, 2024, and May 1, 2025, according to a report by GLAAD, an LGBTQ+ nonprofit advocacy group. These incidents included physical attacks, vandalism, harassment and threats with an explicit or reasonably inferred motive of LGBTQ+ hate.
The GLAAD report also outlined legislative action it said coincided with the increase in incidents, particularly those targeting transgender people.
While VCPC has not received any direct threats, it has received negative attention online and was turned down while looking for sponsorships from businesses that, according to Marrow, “can’t take the risk” of supporting LGBTQ+ people in the current political climate.
Miller said volunteer security teams will be at Ellsworth Park all day, ensuring Pridefest is safe and accessible for everyone attending.
Ultimately, the organizers say, Pride is about visibility. Marrow said it’s a good opportunity not just for LGBTQ+ people to connect with each other, but for others to understand LGBTQ+ people are real, active members of their community.
She said many people in rural areas simply aren’t aware of the LGBTQ+ people in their communities.
“There’s a lot of disconnect there. These are real people. This is that person that you just bought your car from. This is the guy that you see every week to get your wife flowers. That lady is in your favorite band,” she said. “So, how do we reconcile this? Hopefully that’s at Pride.”