With Smyrna Pride it’s been about one whole year since I started blogging my market experiences! Thank y’all for reading 😀 And I’m happy to report that the anniversary of my blog coincided with a successful Smyrna Pride.
Winter Sign-ups
Previous vendors were informed through email that applications for Smyrna Pride 2025 would be opening up in January. This year, Smyrna Pride offered two tiers of booths, premium and standard. Premium booths would be shaded by trees in the middle of the festival on West Spring Street for $150 and standard booths would be along city hall or the fountain near the edges of the festival for $125.
As soon as the application links were sent out I hopped on them and in a couple weeks I got my approval email with booth payment due within 3 business days. I opted for a premium spot, since my booth last year was placed near the edge of the festival, I wanted to see how much better my business could do with more traffic. It was all looking to be another straightforward wait until June when Smyrna Pride got in a little bit of trouble around early February.
Trouble in Pride
I like to follow event organizers over social media, so I happened to be scrolling when the gauntlet was through on Smyrna is Fabulous’ official Facebook page. A board member announced he was stepping down and alleged that SiF had violated its own “politically neutral” policy when they decided to accept a Democrat booth but refused a Log Cabin Republican booth. There were further allegations that this board member had received personal harassment for pushing the LCR to be accepted behind the scenes. I remember the post seeming odd and unprofessional, maybe a disgruntled party airing dirty laundry, but didn’t pay it too much mind. Little did I know, I happened to witness the catalyst of a media storm for Smyrna is Fabulous.
It became a cultural war talking point for Georgia Republicans. Fox News, the Georgia GOP Chair, and the LCR themselves allegedly stirred up enough trouble that they spooked sponsors into pulling out support and forced SiF into damage control. You can read more details about it on the GA Voice [link to article].
The next time I was aware of the problem was from Smyrna is Fabulous’s Instagram account. They put out a public statement that the allegations of them rejecting the LCR while accepting a Democrat vendor were simply untrue, and that the former board member’s accusations of personal harassment failed to produce proof. However, to avoid escalating the division, they would accept the LCR as a vendor with conditions. These included that LCR stopped spreading harassment and false claims, that the LCR were not to disrespect the inclusive nature of Smyrna Pride, and Smyrna is Fabulous would look for an opposing party vendor to keep a balanced atmosphere. They also put out an email to vendors explaining the situation as well, and while the deadline to drop out of Smyrna Pride had passed, they were giving us the opportunity to leave without penalty given the circumstances.
Now, elephant in the room, from what I could tell on social media and my own personal concerns, folks were uncomfortable with accepting any Republican adjacent organization into Smyrna Pride, given that Republicans have made transphobia a national platform.
One thing that stood out to me was throughout the ordeal Smynra is Fabulous kept repeating that they envisioned their event as one without politics and that was why they had rejected LCR originally. That they had in fact rejected all political parties to remain neutral. Personally, I just don’t think it’s possible to separate pride from politics, especially when we’re currently fighting for trans rights.
I decided to keep my vendor spot, even with the potential of more shenanigans, because I wanted to ensure at least my pro-trans ally self would be there. I also took inspiration to become more political in my own art, and this was the impetus for my zines series, “Despite the Doom We Dare to Bloom.”
Pride Prep
Throughout spring, I kept a cautious optimism about Smyrna Pride. It seemed SiF’s attempts to pacify LCR were successful and I didn’t see any social media chatter of trouble brewing. SiF had also sent clear messaging to us vendors that we were to be respectful of the whole LGBTQ+ community, a few times up until the event. It did kind of feel like when the teacher has to lecture the whole class but you know it’s really about one kid.
I continued to do my research and write my zines, eventually deciding on three topics to debut at Smyrna Pride: voting in your local elections, calling your representatives, and stop doom scrolling! The last one did go through a few titles before it rolled off the tongue ^_^;; I do have few other planned topics in the chamber, but I thought these would be good to start with as voting and contacting reps are fairly straightforward. Good practice for me to get the hang of writing zines. I even finished the first two early and released them at Athens Pride!
Around early June, we got a final vendor email from SiF detailing our festival layout and vendor load-in schedule. We were also required to respond to the email to confirm we had received and read it. Learning from Athens Pride, I also kept an eye on the weather forecast and oh man, another mixed predictions about maybe thunder storms, but maybe not??? Wanting to avoid another soak, I attempted to streamline my setup even further. I borrowed a 4-foot table so I could leave my clunky 6-foot at home, left my mannequin as well, and upgraded to a ABCCanopy tent. I’d heard many a good recommendation for their hardy tents and hoped one could handle the rain better than my poor, damaged, in-need-of-retirement previous tent.
Pokémon Go to Pride!
I rolled into Smyrna Pride a little earlier than my load-in time, sometimes I just get too nervous and don’t want to wait around. Plus, since it’d be my first time setting up the ABCCanopy tent I wanted to allow extra time in case of trouble shooting. The SiF staff allowed me in, I pulled up to my spot, unloaded my car, drove off to park in the nearby free parking lot, and came back to finish setting up.
Despite visiting the Smyrna Village Green lots of times, this was my first time vending along the West Spring Street space. One thing I noticed was when cars would squeeze by my tent to get their spots it felt so close! Ahhhh! Fortunately, everything was safe. A few SiF staff members saw me trying to put my tent up myself and volunteered to help me out. I’m not sure what wizardry the ABCCanopy was engineered with but setting it up was sooooooo much easier than my old tent! Despite its sturdier and heavier frame, something about the construction allowed it to pop-up very fluidly. Like… I really noticed how much less physical effort it took, no wonder vendors love this tent. I ended up finishing my set up awkwardly early ^_^;
The festival officially started around 12 PM, and there were a few wanderers who came in a bit early. I was able to make a few sales before opening, but the real crowd certainly came in around 1 PM. Sales peaked from 12-3 PM, with another small peak in the final hour. Coincidentally, Smyrna Pride was the same weekend as Pokémon Go Fest, so you’d see a huge crowd of Pokémon trainers roll in periodically for the SMV gym raids. It was the first time a lot of my PGo friends got to see me selling my art, which was really cool! Later one of them even helped me load-up my car. Thank you, Vadim!!
Predictably, the day was hot and humid. But fortunately!!! No storms~! Neither weather nor political, from what I could tell. Unlike last year, it sounds like there were no anti-LGBTQ protestors in the near vicinity of the event, which is an improvement! I did check on the LCR and Democrat booths around midday and it seemed there was peace. They were placed in front of City Hall which was far from my spot, but from what I can tell there was no trouble making the whole event. Which hey, is probably the most positive realistic outcome we could’ve had!
Big thanks to my friend, Kari, who visited and brought me a canned dragon fruit Baja Blast! I was in desperate need of caffeine. Despite my efforts to keep cool, iced water and a portable electric fan, the heat was sapping my energy. I was getting sleepy even with all the visitors to my tent!
It’s hard to know since my current booth location was in a higher traffic spot, but it did feel like the crowd at Smyrna Pride has grown. A few recognized me from last year or even Atlanta Pride, but a majority of my sales came from new customers. Thank you, guys! As one may expect, the crowd was pretty diverse and there was a wide range of ages: parents with young kids, teenage friend groups, and elderly couples.
I didn’t explore the other main attractions Smyrna Pride had to offer, but it seemed there was one thing or another going on throughout the day. There were speakers set up throughout West Spring Street for the live DJ whose music kept the energy going.
By around 4 PM the activity started to quiet down, and by 5 PM I know a few of the vendors started packing up early. One of the SiF staff came by to remind us closing wasn’t until 6 PM and asked for us to remain until then. I’m not really a fan of packing up early, but with the heat that day I couldn’t blame them ^__^;
Once load-out officially started things with smoothly. With my smaller set-up I was able to pack up pretty fast, but still!!! I was one of the last ones to leave, just like last year! >w<;;; Thank you again to Vadim for helping me take down my tent and load my car.
And just in time too! While it was sunny all day, early evening the clouds began to roll in. Whew! You never can know for outdoor events, but I’m still glad I was cautious with my setup because it did allow me to reserve my energy for the rest of the day.
Billie’s Vendor Rating
| Queer Pride | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Foot Traffic | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Attendee Vibes | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Restrooms | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Pokémon GO | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Organization | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
Despite a shaky lead-up, I think Smyrna Pride went quite well. My revenue double from last year and it was wonderful to see another gathering of queer pride. Especially with the current political environment, I think any peaceful pride celebration to be a win, and even better if it’s my own city. Perhaps the challenges this year provided valuable lessons for Smyrna is Fabulous, and I hope they’re able to grow Smyrna Pride even bigger in the years to come.
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