Michigan Pride Parade: Your ultimate guide for downtown Lansing's event, Old Town's festival
Eric LacyLANSING — Saturday marks the 30th year of the Michigan Pride Parade in Lansing, and this one is expected to make plenty of history.
Below is your guide to an event-filled day and night scheduled for the streets of downtown Lansing and the city's Old Town neighborhood.
Leigha Faith, 42, Michigan Pride's co-chair, said this year's event not only focuses on the importance of love and acceptance for all people but also outreach for younger generations.
"I think that the children need to know that they’re going to inherit a country that will accept who they are — no matter what that is," Faith said.
1. Know the route, road closures
The parade starts noon Saturday at Adado Riverfront Park, located at North Grand Avenue and East Shiawasee Street.
People are encouraged to join the parade as it travels south on Grand Avenue to Ottawa Street, west on Ottawa Street to Capitol Avenue and south on Capitol Avenue.
The parade ends at the state Capitol's steps and is followed by a rally.
“By the time you’re done, you have thousands of people marching to the Capitol en mass," Faith said of the parade.
At the Capitol, several people are scheduled to speak at the rally.
The lineup includes first-year Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, Lansing Mayor Andy Schor, members of the Michigan Pride board and two transgender teenagers.
The Rev. Phiwa Langeni, founder of downtown Lansing's Salus Center, also is scheduled to speak.
Sections of Grand, Shiawassee, Ottawa, Capitol, Ionia Street and Michigan Avenue will be closed during the parade and rally.
Downtown parking on streets, at metered spaces and in city-owned lots, is expected to be free.
2. Record crowd anticipated
Even if the weather doesn't cooperate, Faith expects crowds for the parade, rally and festival.
Faith anticipates at least 5,000 people because she said issues pertaining to human rights have become more prevalent in society.
She also believes more people will attend the events because Nessel — the first openly gay person elected to statewide office in Michigan — is the parade's grand marshal.
“It doesn’t matter what gender you are," Faith said of the Michigan Pride's philosophy. "What matters is your heart, the passion and your ability to treat others with kindness,"
Michigan’s first major gay rights rally and pride march started in Detroit on Sunday, June 15, 1986.
The 1986 Michigan Lesbian Gay Pride Parade and Rally brought about 2,000 people together in Kennedy Square downtown.
The pride parade was moved to Lansing in 1989 in hopes of attracting statewide participation and drew 3,800 people that year, according to the State Journal's archives.
3. Festival in Old Town family friendly
Following the parade and rally downtown will be the Michigan Pride Festival in the streets of Lansing's Old Town neighborhood from 1 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Neighborhood businesses will be open during the festival along with food vendors and a beverage tent where alcohol, pop and water will be sold.
Music acts will perform throughout the afternoon and evening on stage at the north end of Turner Street.
The festival also will include a "family fun zone" with a craft table, games, scavenger hunt and face painting beginning at 1 p.m.
A children's parade through the festival area starts at 2 p.m. The Lansing Lugnuts' mascot Big Lug is the children's parade's grand marshal.
Admission to the festival is $10 for adults and $5 for people ages 5 to 18. Admission for children ages 4 and under is free.
People who volunteer at the festival in Old Town or the parade in downtown Lansing — no matter what age — receive free admission to the festival and a T-shirt.
For more information, visit michiganpride.org/volunteer.html.
4. Voter registration offered
People who are at least 18 years old or will be 18 by the next election in Michigan can register to vote during the festival in Old Town.
The Lansing City Clerk's office will have a tent on Turner Street where you can register, sign up for an absentee ballot and ask election and voting-related questions.
No documentation or identification is required to register.
In order to vote in Michigan, you must meet these requirements:
- United States citizenship
- At least 18 years of age by election day
- A resident of Lansing or another city or township in which you are applying for voter registration
To check if you're already registered to vote, and for more information, visit michigan.gov/vote.
Lansing will have an Aug. 6 primary election for City Council candidates followed by a Nov. 5 general election.
5. Entertainment lineup is diverse
A look at music acts scheduled to perform Saturday in Old Town at the festival.
- Noon - DJ Restless
- 1 p.m. - LVRS Band
- 2 p.m. Sabin & Emma Sapphire
- 5:30 p.m. Kelsey Lynn
- 8 p.m. - Tell Yo Mama
Tell Yo Mama band is described on its website as "a soulful, funky groove machine." It features Lansing native Lucas Holliday, a former contestant on NBC's "The Voice."
Holliday, 28, earned a spot on the hit TV show after a customer took a video of him singing while working the cash register at a local Dollar General store.
The "singing cashier" was eliminated from the show in 2017 but sill performs solo and with his band at shows throughout the country.
Holiday said he and his band are expected Saturday to perform covers and original songs for about two hours.
"The main goal — as it always is — is to keep people feeling vibrant, get them dancing, moving and grooving," Holliday said.
Faith said she doesn't expect Saturday's forecast to affect the entertainment booked for the festival unless there's lightning.
“Even if it’s rain, rain or shine, drizzle or sizzle, we’re having it," she said.
Eric Lacy is a reporter for the Lansing State Journal. Contact him at 517-377-1206 or elacy@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @EricLacy.
Help the State Journal provide more coverage of activities in the Lansing region. Subscribe now for only 33 cents per week. Visit bit.ly/2UnxlJE.
Saturday's weather outlook
Lansing's weather forecast for Saturday calls for a about a 50 percent chance of rain throughout the day and into the evening and a chance of lighting, according to the National Weather Service.
"Probably showery-type of stuff," said Wayne Hoepner, an NWS meteorologist in Grand Rapids. "Everybody is probably going to see rain; they're probably just not going to see it all at the same time."
The high temperature for Saturday is 70 degrees with a low of 59 degrees at night.