El Sobrante celebrates Pride with first community festival

Drag queens danced through the crowd as families picnicked and children mingled with chickens, goats and rabbits at El Sobrante’s inaugural Pride celebration in La Moine Park on Sunday. 

The event also featured music by DJ Page Hodel, vendors from the business committee and information about resources offered through area nonprofits. Hundreds of people watched drag performances from Viva Commotion, Summer Lynn Spears, Angel De Vil and Ash N Tell Starlight, singing crowd favorites such as Kesha’s “We Are Who We Are.”

The seed for the event was planted a year ago, said Clayton Price-Brown and Michael Price-Brown, founders and co-chairs of the event. The couple said that after attending many Pride events, they dreamed of bringing Pride to El Sobrante, where they have lived for the past 15 years. 

A phone call to Nicole Donn, president of the El Sobrante Chamber of Commerce, set everything in motion. Donn approached the Chamber’s board of directors with this idea and found support. 

“Pride is about your neighbors, the people you live next to, the family down the street,” Clayton told the crowd on Sunday. “We should be proud of who we are as people and celebrate that and celebrate each other.”

The Rev. Melinda V. McClain, stage manager for the event and pastor at The Good Table United Church of Christ, said it was important to create a safe, multi-generational space, where all families could feel like they belonged. 

“We felt like it was time to bring Pride out into semi-rural areas. It’s not that we don’t want to go to San Francisco, but we want to have a more community-focused, easy-going Pride,” she said.

Erika Scott and Breffni O’Rourke found out about the event through their children’s day care. “It’s just good to see representation, diversity, and acceptance,” O’Rourke said, as his two children enjoyed the petting zoo.

Jessica Van Winkle, owner of J. VanWinkle Photography and Sandbox Daycare, saw a post about the event on Facebook and wanted to give back to the community by taking photos.

Throughout the event, she took photos of attendees in front of a black backdrop with rainbow fringe. She was planning to edit the photos and email them to people for free, she said. 

Contra Costa County Supervisor John Gioia addressed a lack of tolerance and divisive political rhetoric in America, telling the crowd, “We are stronger as a county and as a community when we understand and accept and appreciate and empower the great cultural diversity that exists in our country, in our state, in our county and in our cities.”

Richmond council members Cesar Zepeda and Soheila Bana spoke about their pride in the community, the importance of unity and their hope for more Pride events. 

Zepeda reflected on Richmond’s inaugural Rainbow Pride, which took place 10 years ago. “At that time, we were very afraid of what was going to be happening,” he said, noting that Richmond’s first openly gay council member, Jovanka Beckles, had been publicly ridiculed at the time.

“Now here we are celebrating in Richmond, not just one Pride parade in June, but a second Pride event in September in another corner of our city.” 

The event was sponsored by the Price-Brownns, the El Sobrante Chamber of Commerce, The Good Table United Church of Christ, East Bay Municipal Utility District, Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, Republic Services, AC Transit, and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 2019.

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