Grab your glitter and rainbow-colored everything because Glenwood Springs’ second annual Pride Celebration is this Saturday.

If you don’t have glitter or anything rainbow colored, don’t fret — the queens, queers and kings of the local LGBTQ+ community have your back.

“We are expecting a huge influx of people this year,” Kaleb Cook, founder of Cook Inclusive Company, said. “We are really excited to take this event to the next level for our second year.”

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He’s bringing the second ever Pride Celebration back to downtown Glenwood, and he made sure to come prepared. 

His booth will have free glitter painting, flags, pronoun pins, shirts and more. 

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“Gay for Good of Rocky Mountains donated sensory headphones,” Cook said. “If you are a person that might get overstimulated by the amount of noise and everything going on, we have headphones for you that are noise-canceling.”

There will also be merchandise that highlights local services and supports future events.  

“We are doing donation-based merchandise sales under the bridge,” he said. “We’ll be selling mugs that were made by people with autism and plants from Mountain Valley Developmental Services Greenhouse.” 

He added, “If you don’t have an outfit yet, we have t-shirts for sale, and all the proceeds will be going as a donation to support year-round queer and accessible programming with Cook Inclusive.”

There are almost three times as many booths as last year, with nearly 30 vendors setting up at Pride this year. Bluebird Cafe will have a booth, with owner Justin Bishop also accepting donations for local LGBTQ+ related charity and events. 

Many of the booths and local businesses will be offering drink and food specials and, for the month of June, give the businesses flying their Pride flags high some extra love for their support. 

Pride will be completely family-friendly and accessible to all. It will start at 5 p.m. on Saturday at Bethel Plaza under the Grand Avenue bridge and is slated to run until 8 p.m. Gov. Jared Polis will be making a special address along with other leaders in the area talking about their experiences and services in the Roaring Fork Valley. 

“We have all kinds of activities and fun for the whole family. The entire event is family-friendly,” Cook said. “It’s accessible, and it’s language equitable, so every person from every background is more than welcome to join us.”

Music will start after Polis speaks at about 6:30 p.m. The featured live performance is a Spanish-speaking band called Party Party. At 7:30 p.m., there will be a drag show with performances in both Spanish and English, along with family-friendly music and dance moves.

“Drag is an art form, and that form of expression is very fundamental to the queer community,” Cook said. “It’s so important that we can provide drag and access to drag to people of all ages just because it provides visibility and representation, and it allows people to really see that the queer community is a beautiful community.”

Remember to bring cash to tip all of the performers throughout the evening. 

“We are super excited because our band and our queens, like all of our performers, are Spanish-focused, which is what Glenwood Springs needs more of,” he said. 

The venue is completely accessible for wheelchairs and everything public will be translated in both Spanish and American Sign Language.