It’s June, which means one thing for Buffalonians- it is finally safe to come out and play. The hibernation period is over and the weather is finally warm enough where you can leave your parka at home. One can tell that everyone is excited for summer every year just by the shear amount of events that start being advertised in early May; every weekend there’s a new celebration. For the most part, it’s a celebration of heritage, food, this city, and life. Frankly, it is nearly impossible to go to every summer event in Buffalo. This weekend, Red Door was able to participate in two of the larger ones Porch Fest and Pride.
Porch Fest is a celebration of Music. Started in Ithaca, New York, it is exactly what it sounds like. All over the Elmwood Village, musicians’ set up their stages on porches. People are able to walk from porch to porch and listen to local music as they enjoy the weather, the food, and the city. This celebration takes place all over the country. From Georgia to Cleveland, there are porches turned into stages and people love it. Buffalo is no exception. We celebrate it bi-annually which just goes to show how big of a hit it is. Assisted by the EVA, volunteers help to set it up and we could not be more thankful.
The band on our porch was ‘Surviving Friday’. The music was wonderful and probably everything you would need to get you to actually survive Friday. They did a fantastic job and there was a pretty good sized crowd enjoying their music. Huge thank you to them for preforming on our porch! Overall, the event is a great way to celebrate music. Buffalo has a pretty large and bold local music scene and supporting them through events like this help them out a lot.
Pride needs almost no background information. It is probably the largest and most well-known event that takes place in June and in Buffalo overall. The 2017 celebration marks the 26th year that Pride Buffalo has been taking place. That’s 26 years that our city has been celebrating people being who they are- which is amazing to think about. Pride is a week-long celebration with events every day, some of these include: the Flag Raising ceremony, the Gay 5K, and the Big Gay Sing. We were lucky enough to spend more time on our porch as the parade marches straight past our location.
The parade is beautiful, colorful, loud, bold and fun. It is a celebration of the history and culture of the LBGTQ community in walking to show who they are and where they have come from. The theme of this year was “connect” and we felt like we all did. It is the event that gives you pride to be who you are, this in itself is unique. After watching this amazing display of individuality and acceptance, we are already counting down until next year.
Summer is the best time to be in Buffalo. Gone are the days of snow, snow brushes, oversized sweaters and being nervous to watch the weather. The days are now here where we all get to celebrate our community, our culture, our traditions and our lives. We look forward to even more Buffalo- event filled weekends. Thank you to all of the people that work so hard to put these things together so we all get to enjoy them!
If you are interested in working with Red Door of WNY please give us a ring at 716-768-1177. We’re opening doors all over WNY and we want to make your dreams come true!
