A cool, consistent wind breezing through the hamlet of Callicoon gave breath to the many rainbow colored flags, pendants, and decorations as a crowd of people showed up to fly their colors, promote the local businesses, and celebrate Pride + Callicoon on Saturday, June 18.

Catskills Pride President Dwayne Brown said that Callicoon was chosen for this year's Pride because it is the hamlet with the densest concentration of LGBTQIA+ and allied owned businesses all throughout Sullivan County.

Callicoon is also the ground zero for an original Pride celebration two decades ago.

“This is our first major Pride event, we’re celebrating 20 years since the origination of A Day to Be Gay, which is our roots,” Brown said. “We were born from Day to Be Gay, so it’s a way to honor them.”

Brown noted that he was acquainted on Saturday at Pride + Callicoon with a few attendees of the original Day to be Gay celebration.

“It was really great to talk to them, and they gave a really good history [on the event],” Brown said.

A Pride Afterparty was put on by the Callicoon Theater, Litt Home & Book, Stumble Out Bar and the Neon Croissant at the original location of the Day to be Gay celebration, the Delaware Youth Center, which saw a crowd of people celebrating pride on into the night.

This year, the love that was once relegated to only the youth center was spread all the way through upper and lower Main Street, with over 20 LGBTQIA+ and allied businesses from around the county showing up in support of Pride + Callicoon.

Brown called the scene on upper Main Street one of Catskills Pride’s ‘Super Socials,’ as Saturday’s celebrations marked one of the largest of their regular, monthly socials, which were previously typically held at the Forestburgh Playhouse.

Now, Catskills Pride does their best to be accessible to all and locate their socials all around the county.

“We really have this huge influx of new people by moving our socials around monthly,” Brown said.

Although Catskills Pride is a non-profit organization, all the proceeds from the select number of the businesses set up on Main Street received 100 percent of the profits. However, Brown said that in their generosity, some of those businesses offered a ten to 15 percent donation back to Catskills Pride.

Pride + Callicoon ran from 1-6 PM, and ended its day-time festivities with a Drag Show performance from the balcony of the Callicoon Brewery. The drag performers included Kay Gorgeous, Missy N’formation, Ditto, Kirby Kirbb, and King Nilus.

For more information on Catskills Pride upcoming socials and events, check out their website at www.catskillspride.com.

Attendees of all ages, creeds, backgrounds, and identities explored lower and upper Main Street on Saturday, wearing their pride on their sleeves, with some wearing it on their backs, tying flags in a cape-like fashion to display to the hamlet and to the world the colors of their pride.