Speakers blasted the booming beats of Lady Gaga’s Poker Face through the air as colorful flags waved in the bustling crowd. Texans from across the area came together at the fourth annual Round Rock Pride Festival at Centennial Plaza from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday, June 7 to celebrate Pride Month by honoring the LGBTQA+ community. Reflecting their slogan “A place for all”, Round Rock Pride welcomed LGBTQA+ individuals and allies alike to this celebration rich with continuous entertainment, vendors, queer-owned organizations, food trucks, and a cool-off room.
The pride festival was organized by Round Rock Pride, a nonprofit organization that aims to celebrate the diversity in the community by providing a gathering place for individuals seeking safety, acceptance, and love. While the organization has been engaging in community outreach for many years now, their first official Round Rock Pride Festival was relatively recent, taking place in 2022. Since then, it has become an annual event, attracting hundreds of individuals from all walks of life. Members of the Gender-Sexuality Alliance (GSA) Club from Westwood attended to spread the word about their organization.
“We’re running a booth: we’re helping kids and adults make bracelets, [handing] out stickers, and telling them about RRISD GSAs and their role and space,” GSA President Abi Caudle ‘26 said. “This morning, different RRISD GSAs [from Early College High School and Round Rock High School] came and set up our tent and our table. They provided some of [these materials], but we brought some of the bracelet-making supplies, and then we just [stood] here and helped other people. We just wanted to have a fun activity for people to do, get out of the sun for a minute, and have fun.”
Organizing a festival on this grand of a scale, complete with numerous booths, businesses, and performances, proved to be not an easy task for those involved. It required the work of the Round Rock Pride Board as well as a dedicated team of volunteers. A crucial part of this process was Ms. Sharon Eskenazi, the Secretary of Round Rock Pride as well as a board member. In addition to being a teacher in RRISD, Ms. Eskenazi demonstrated her passion for inclusion by coordinating vendors, this year’s scavenger hunt, and a litany of event logistics.
“This is our fourth annual festival, so we’re getting better at it every year,” Ms. Eskenazi said. “We really had no experience on how to do it [at first], so we learned from some other local towns who had their own festivals, and then we figured it out and it’s gotten better over [the] years. Now, we have a system.”
Volunteers were an integral part of making this experience memorable. Round Rock Pride recruited volunteers by January this year, and regular volunteer meetings took them through April. By then, many entertainment and vendors submitted their applications and were accepted. With the help of Ms. Eskenazi and the volunteers, the festival was a success — with hundreds of attendees, the festival was full of constant cheers, music, and chatter made possible by the numerous willing volunteers. A key member was the Round Rock Pride Volunteer Manager Ms. Heather Lucas, who is also a teacher in RRISD. Her contribution to the festival’s organization was crucial to its success.
“If you want to participate, you just reach out and the board has monthly meetings,” Ms. Lucas said. “If you want to volunteer, they set up volunteer meetings. I just happened to be at [a previous] pride festival with Round Rock High School’s GSA and started helping out. One of our fellow teachers is on the board, and so I said, ‘all right, sign me up’.”
All-day entertainment was a staple of the festival, with crowds gathering on the lawn to witness performances onstage. The festival kicked off with speeches from Dell Technologies, the festival’s main sponsor, and transitioned into proclamations from Round Rock Mayor Craig Morgan, the Barbette Foundation, and Texas State Representative John Bucy III. Then, the festivities started: from popular drag performers such as award-winning drag queen Tasha Kohl and local drag king Trey Devine to the South Asian LGBTQA+ group KhushATX performing Bollywood dances to DJ Kimmy K’s crowd-hyping beats, the stage was never unoccupied. These diverse individuals allowed attendees to find a safe space in the festival no matter their identity or background. Under the scorching Texas heat, however, many celebrants flocked to the Baca Center — dubbed the cool-off room — to meet inclusive faith groups, participate in the silent auction, or simply recuperate from the weather.
“One thing I know I need to do differently is I need to do a better job with my food vendors and drink vendors,” Ms. Eskenazi said. “I need to make sure that each vendor is not duplicating what another vendor has. I know that’s in the weeds, but I’m always trying to keep all of my vendors happy.”
In addition to the entertainment, the festival featured over 120 vendors. The celebration was an opportunity for queer-owned businesses, local artists, nonprofits, creators, and queer-friendly organizations to celebrate pride while advertising their services. From the Atheist Community of Austin and Austin Community College to Hope Presbyterian Church and kin•dom community to still Dough-A-Licious and Henna by Charu, there was something that appealed to every attendee. Of the numerous stalls was Swallow Wines, a queer-owned winery that attended to support Round Rock Pride while gaining insight into potential customers. While Swallow Wines is now a successful business, pouring wine from 29 California makers, their path to prosperity had obstacles.
“I’m married to my husband Gabe,” Swallow Wines Co-owner Mr. Matt Ellis said. “We had to get married in California 12 years ago before it was legal across the country, and it wasn’t recognized in Texas for a couple of years. I’m super glad to [get] recognized all over the country.”
Having vendors that were queer-owned or run by allies reminded the LGBTQA+ individuals that despite the polarizing perspectives surrounding queer rights, there were still groups willing to vocalize their support in this time of hardship. Whether it was IKEA hanging the Blåhaj plush shark toy in their stall, a popular symbol in the transgender community, or Subaru of Georgetown bringing a car for attendees to color with markers, there was no doubt the vendors united to create a safe space during those five hours.
“This car is a great way for us to interact with the community,” Subaru of Georgetown Assistant Event Coordinator Ms. Savannah Snowden said. “Basically, we call it the coloring book so that you can come and color in the car. At the end of the event, we get to wash it off and do it all over again for another event. It really brings the community together, and love is love.”
In the midst of the current political climate, LGBTQA+ activity and rights are increasingly being limited by legislation, social norms, and authority figures. A sharp contrast to previous festivals where the event was simply another opportunity to express confidence and find community, many LGBTQA+ individuals present this year were apprehensive about their future. The celebration was an opportunity to get a breath of fresh air from the tension surrounding the community’s place in politics.
“Everybody needs a safe space to be in,” Caudle said. “We’re not really hurting anybody. It’s important to show people that we’re nice, we’re here, [and] we’re just doing our thing.”
However, due to the unstable state of LGBTQA+ rights, Ms. Eskenazi noted that safety was a priority when organizing the event. The safety of attendees ensures that the festival is a day of celebration rather than a day of fear, which is a reality many queer individuals are subjected to daily. Interestingly, the festival organizers were not tempted to draw less attention to the festival in light of rising tensions; rather, they focused on encouraging inclusivity for everyone, no matter who they love or how they identify.
“If anything, we were more emboldened to make sure that we had the festival, and I think the mayor’s words today were really impactful with that,” Ms. Eskenazi said. “We just want to make sure we have a fun event for families. We are always concerned if there are folks who don’t agree with us that may come and protest [though], so we ensure that there’s security in place, both with local police and with volunteers doing securing for us.”
Many attendees expressed that the annual Round Rock Pride Festival symbolizes that LGBTQA+ people exist and will continue to exist, whether the administration seeks to silence them or not. For queer youth in Austin and Texas at large, the festival is not just an opportunity to bond with the community but also a representation of the unconditional support that businesses, organizations, and nonprofits are willing to extend. It is a sign that the queer community is united and in support of one another.
“Every generation is responsible for the generation below,” Ms. Lucas said. “Being a teacher, I want to make the world a better place.”
