St. Cloud Pride Week Goes Digital Amid Pandemic

ST. CLOUD – This year's St. Cloud Pride Week has gone digital.

The 11th annual celebration of the St. Cloud area's LGBTQ community and allies will feature a familiar week-long lineup of events, but the majority will be held in virtual space.

“We’re trying to do similar events to those we’ve done in the past, only digital,” explained Prudy Reberg, chair of the St. Cloud Pride Committee. “We'll have our drag show, our showcase of St. Cloud area businesses that support Pride, and our Peace Gathering and Pride Parade. Plus, we still have our most recent activity – our pet costume contest and pet parade."

Events like Thursday's panel discussion, Friday night's dance party and Saturday's drag show will be hosted on video streaming platform Twitch. Other activities, such as the Digital Pride Parade, will last all week, with photos from individuals or businesses shared via social media.

“Local businesses can showcase Pride specials they're having," Reberg said. "If they’re serving rainbow cookies or decorating with rainbows, they can take a picture of it and share it to our Facebook page."

The one in-person event this year, Reberg says, is Saturday's Pride in Our Parks cleanup. Individuals or groups can sign up for two hour times slots to help beautify area parks.

“We’re looking for volunteers – businesses or community members," she said. "There’s a sign-up sheet on our website. We have some parks in St. Cloud, Waite Park, Sauk Rapids and St. Joseph that we will be cleaning up and doing some landscaping and flower planting."

Reberg says this year's unique Pride Week "came together beautifully" thanks to a dedicated planning committee.

“They're absolutely amazing,” she said. “They were very creative and very collaborative. They came up with the ideas and reached out to performers and panelists and pulled it all together."

For information on how to participate in Pride Week, visit St. Cloud Pride’s website or Facebook page.