If anyone in Durango knows how to have a good time – and make sure you do, too – it’s Aria PettyOne. And to celebrate June being Pride Month, she’s throwing a doozy of an extended weekend.
PettyOne Productions presents Show Your Pride, a five-day party June 23 to 27. The celebration will include a trivia contest, lip-sync battle, dance, drag show (which is already sold out), comedy show and an afternoon hang out by the river at Memorial Park.
“I’m excited for it. It’s going to be a lot of work but I’m just excited because it’s already events I put on on a regular basis, so I’m not too worried about it,” Aria said. “I think it’s going to be a really chill good time with the queermunity.”
If there’s one event not to miss, she said, it’s the Pride Dance scheduled for June 24.
Show Your Pride Schedule
June 23
Pride Trivia & Lip Sync Battles, Starlight Lounge, 937 Main Ave.
Pride Trivia, 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. (Free 21+ event). Featuring three-round, special Pride prizes and drag performances. Get there early to get your table.
Lip Sync Battles, 10 to 11 p.m. (Free 21+ event) Sign up during trivia to be crowned our First Ever Pride Lip Sync Assassin! Top two crowd favorites compete for the crown.
June 24
Pride Dance, 9 p.m.-close, The Garage Billiards & Music Hall, 121 W. Eighth St. $5 cover, 21 and older. Featuring DJs, dancing and drink specials.
June 25
Pride Planet Petty Drag Show, 7:30 p.m. (Doors open at 6:30 p.m.), 11th Street Station, 1101 Main Ave. 18 and older. Sold out.
June 26
Pride River Hang Out, Memorial Park, 2901 East Third Ave., 12 to 4 p.m. All ages event! Bring the family, friends and snacks to hang out with fellow Queermunity members in a fun day in the sun. Look for the Pride flags to find us.
June 27
Come Out For Comedy, Starlight Lounge, 937 Main Ave. Hosted by Emma Z and Aria PettyOne, (Free 21+ event). Open Mic, 8 to 9 p.m. Pride Show, 9 to 11 p.m. Featuring Durango’s funniest comedians and fiercest drag performers you can find. Come enjoy the last night of Pride with some laughs.
“I definitely think the dance is going to be a lot of fun at the Garage. We did one last year and it was a lot of fun,” she said. “It’s fun to come out with your friends and dance the night away and have a good time. There are some fun DJs and some great drink specials, too.”
Aria said she sees the LBGTQ community growing in the area, which is a testament to the openness of the community as a whole.
“I think a lot of parents are moving here because things like the Rainbow Youth Center and the Four Corners Alliance for Diversity have really brought attention to the queermunity and making sure that it’s uplifted,” she said. “So I definitely think through a lot of the work that a lot of us are doing in the community, it’s definitely brought some more people here and it’s definitely growing and expanding as well.”
And it’s the idea of community support that Aria said keeps her inspired and going – “I keep doing it for the same reason I always say, I think I’ve been kind of able to verbalize it better lately:
“I grew up not really having anyone that looked like me or was like me to look up to, so for a long time I didn’t know that I could grow up to be happy and queer, so, my goal is just to be that for anyone who’s never had that before, who didn’t have anyone to look up to, who didn’t have someone to be inspired by,” she said. “I am really lucky in the fact that I’m so uplifted by not only the queermunity here, but the Durango community in general. It’s just been really overwhelming how much people have responded to Aria. I don’t think you even have to be queer to respond to something like Aria, I think she really speaks to a lot of people for just kind of being yourself and being open and being unafraid to be out there.”
katie@durangoherald.com
