TECUMSEH — The annual Lenawee Pride festival has a new date and a new location this year.

Instead of September, the event will move to June, which has been the traditional month for Pride celebrations ever since the early 1970s. And instead of downtown Adrian, it will take place in Tecumseh.

The festival will be on Saturday, June 22, from 3 to 10 p.m. on the grounds of the Tecumseh Center for the Arts, 400 N. Maumee St.

The event will include a stage with live entertainment throughout the afternoon and evening, kicking off with a performance by local artist Hornet’s Daughter at 3 p.m. A line dancing demonstration by Cypressene Fitness will be among the offerings, and the event will close with a DJ and dance party from 9 to 10 p.m.

A shuttle will run between Adrian and Tecumseh. Buses will leave from the parking lot of the former Pharm grocery store at 124 E. Front St., Adrian, at 2:30 p.m., 5:15 p.m., and 7:30 p.m., and will leave Tecumseh heading back to Adrian at 4:30 p.m., 6:45 p.m., and 10:30 p.m.

The event is organized by the M Society, a local organization promoting equality, acceptance and quality of life for Lenawee County’s LGBTQIA+ residents and their friends and family.

Socorro Sevilla, president and founder of the M Society, said the first Lenawee Pride event took place in 2019, and it started out small.

“We had a picnic at Burr Ponds Park,” they said. “We had a pretty decent-sized group. I’d say it was probably about 70 people.”

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the next event didn’t take place until 2021. It was another picnic, and this time nonprofit groups were invited to come and set up tables.

Then in 2022, organizers decided to move to downtown Adrian and adopt a festival model. Despite the group doing minimal advertising, Sevilla said, organizers estimated it drew about 3,000 people over the course of the day. And then in 2023, Sevilla said, “we decided to go bigger.”

While a few protesters did come with the intent of harassing people, Sevilla said, overall “the response from the public was wonderful.”

Sevilla said one common response from attendees was amazement at seeing an event that they never would have imagined happening in their hometown, with even some grown adults brought to tears of happiness. One attendee commented that “I never thought I’d be walking in a Pride parade in Adrian where I grew up.” Another was delighted to say that “I got to hold my boyfriend’s hand and it wasn’t weird.”

Despite that, Sevilla said, frustrations with city government almost led the M Society to decide against organizing a Pride event in 2024. But then the owner of Paper Street Soap in Tecumseh reached out about an event she was hoping to organize at her store, and those plans evolved into the idea that Pride would take place in Tecumseh. Then somebody from Tecumseh City Hall reached out to Sevilla, said “we don’t think you have enough space,” and offered to help scout possible locations.

“There’s been support coming out of the woodwork,” Sevilla said.

People’s joy at seeing a Pride celebration in Lenawee County has made it relatively easy to line up entertainment, Sevilla said. Musicians who grew up in the area and have since moved away are so happy to see the event happening that they’re eager to return to their hometowns and be part of it.

Sevilla said it’s important that rural communities, not just cities, be seen as welcoming places.

“I want to live in the country,” they said. “I shouldn’t have to live someplace else just because of who I am.”

In addition, they noted, not everyone has a choice about where to live.

Sevilla said that although past Pride events have attracted a small number of detractors, the overall public reception has been welcoming. 

“A lot of people around here are very caring people and they want to be supportive.”