After coronavirus-induced hiatus, LGBTQ+ Pride fest returns to Myrtle Beach this fall
Myrtle Beach’s LGBTQ+ Pride in the Park festival will return to Market Common this October for its second year.
The last festival, held in 2019, did not have a successor in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. The organization that ran the previous festival is not involved with the upcoming event.
Pride has now been revived by the nonprofit Pride Myrtle Beach Inc., and organizer Craig McGee hopes to create a permanent tradition of an annual Grand Strand Pride festival — and someday maybe even a parade.
Myrtle Beach up to now has only ever had two LGBTQ+ Pride celebrations, a parade in 1998 and the 2019 festival.
“It’s important for everyone in the community to have a place to go and come together, especially now after we’ve been apart for so long, just to come together and be themselves and support the community,” said McGee, who is gay. “These social interactions are important outside of traditional places together and also to show the community that we’re here and we are just like they are.”
About 3,000 people attended the 2019 festival, McGee said. He’s hoping for similar, if not better, turnout this time.
“I’m so happy to see Grand Stride Pride bringing Pride in the Park back this year,” Myrtle Beach Mayor Brenda Bethune said. “This is a great event that benefits our entire community, while advocating for equality, acceptance and understanding.”
Right now, Myrtle Beach is the largest metro area in South Carolina that doesn’t have a consistent annual LGBTQ+ Pride celebration.
LGBTQ+ Pride celebrations around the country often center around a parade followed by after-parties at local gay bars or a festival. But McGee said he is focusing just on the festival, for now. If the event grows big enough in the coming years, he said Pride Myrtle Beach will consider organizing a parade as well.
“I do see evolving to that someday,” he said. ”But I think this is still going to be a stepping stone to that, so we can get reorganized, back in the swing of things.”
So far, McGee said a few businesses have reached out to help, but the event is still in its very early stages. In the coming weeks, he plans to get the festival’s website up, which will include details about sponsorship and how to get involved as a volunteer.
This year’s event will be slightly bigger than the 2019 festival. McGee said there will be a few offsite events, including a concert the day before.
LGBTQ+ Pride events often serve as one of the only ways for young queer people to meet other local members of the community. Few LGBTQ+ spaces exist in most cities, and they are often bars that require anyone who enters to be 21 or older.
“In 2019, one of the things that I noticed were young people there either with their parents or by themselves, just having a good time laughing and just looking happy,” McGee said. “And that’s important to know that they can come to a place where they’re supported by their community.”
In Myrtle Beach, especially, McGee also knows the queer community can sometimes feel invisible for new, or young, members.
“I do hope we can change that,” he said.
LGBTQ+ people are much more accepted by society today than they were 23 years ago when Myrtle Beach last had a pride parade. Same-sex marriage has been legalized, for one. Yet, the community still faces many challenges, like the barrage of anti-transgender legislation making its way through South Carolina, or the state’s lack of a hate crime bill that covers attacks against LGBTQ+ people.
These present-day challenges are why McGee said it’s still important to have Pride celebrations every year, even with all the progress that has been made.
“I think people are still not accepted a lot in their jobs and their daily lives and their families,” McGee said. “This is still important as long as there’s any kind of discrimination or non-acceptance. I think it’s important to have someone that’s advocating for people who don’t have a voice.”
People looking to help organize Pride in the Grand Strand can email pride2020mb@gmail.com, call 843-213-3626 or stop by McGee’s office at 522 Broadway St., Myrtle Beach.
This story was originally published March 12, 2021 at 1:12 PM.
