It feels like the first time

LIHUE — There was plenty of pride to go around at the First Kauai Pride Parade and Festival, as hundreds made their way to Rice Street Saturday morning, helping to make the inaugural celebration a memorable occasion and notable success for the many sponsors and organizers.

Community members said they were impressed to see the turnout of the first-time gathering.

Dickie Chang moderated the parade, which had 28 entries and lasted nearly an hour before participants were treated with dancing, music and festivities now planned to be a yearly occurrence.

Kauai County Council member KipuKai Kuali‘i was the grand marshal of the parade, and waved from the back seat of a Mustang as it drove down Rice Street, and Kim Coco Iwamoto delivered a keynote speech later in the afternoon.

Councilmember Luke Evslin marched in the parade with his son and all were treated to a brief rain shower at the start of the festivities before the sun reappeared, helping keep spirits high.

“Kauai should be so proud,” Iwamoto said. “This first LGBT pride parade was phenomenal. I think it was better than Honolulu’s parade five years ago. And to think this was their first one, it blew me away — it blew a lot of people who are from Honolulu and came out for this away. We are all amazed and we felt the love as we pulled down to this and turned the corner. It was really incredible and I’m honored to be a part of this great event. Look at this turnout. It’s amazing.”

And the people did turn out, bringing with them every color of the rainbow, some offering free hugs and others just there to show their pride.

“Well, for the first year I was kind of blown away,” Chang said of the festival.

Renetta McMullen held a sign that advertised free hugs, something she said she was offering to share the love with anyone who was willing.

Steven Dick was thrilled with the event, stating that he thinks it will be even easier to grow the event after event organizer Matthew Houck and crew “worked their tails off” to procure funding and sponsors for the inaugural festival.

“I just want to say thank you,” Houck said of the festivities that he and countless others helped bring to fruition.

“I’m grateful that we had a pride. I’ve lived here for seven years and this is the first one, and I’ve been waiting, and I loved all the turnout, and I want it to be bigger — more, bigger, better next year,” said Marie Diamond.

“It’s nice to see so many familiar faces in my community in a different way.”

And as the first festival drew to a close Saturday afternoon at the Historic County Building lawn, people could be seen flowing into nearby businesses and shops en mass as the beginning of a new June tradition on Kauai has officially begun.

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Ryan Collins, county reporter, can be reached at 245-0424 or rcollins@thegardenisland.com.