The 4th Annual Pride Festival of Ashtabula County on June 15 was nothing less than a successful event once again. Hundreds of LGBTQ+ community members and their allies flocked to the shores of Lake Erie at Ashtabula's Walnut Beach, a new location for the event. President and founder Michael Riffe, the event's MC as local drag queen and live singer Mona Lotz, said, "Each year it just keeps getting better. Since our first year at the Hamper Family Farm in 2020, where we were astonished by the nearly 3,000 attendees, to now making our new home at Walnut Beach, we keep growing and growing."  Riffe continued, "We had over 100 vendors this year who told us this was their best year yet, some even stating that this was the best festival for sales they had ever been to. We also added some amazing family fun events like the 18-foot blow-up slide and 'ax throwing" game, along with characters like Spider-Man and Ariel from Castel on a Cloud Entertainment."  Riffe said another crowd favorite was the balloon artist from Flower Clown Entertainment, who created just about anything the kids could ask for. He said the "smiles on everyone's faces, despite the small hurdles they faced in preparation from local protestors, confirmed the event's need for the community and was worth it all! The day also included entertainment provided by Lotz Productions, which included local and native solo artists like Rob Covert and Sue Hagan, Ohio drag performers, a group of teens singing show tunes from Lakeside High School as well as bands such as Lymewire from Conneaut. Next year's festival is planned for June 21 at the same location. The plans have already begun to expand, making the festival one that will continue to rewrite history for Ashtabula County.

The 4th Annual Ashtabula Pride 2024 is happening June 15 from 11 am - 9 pm at Walnut Beach in Ashtabula, Ohio. LOTZ Productions will provide entertainment, local bands, and singers. Food, artisans, family fun events, vendors, and more will be there. Ashtabula Pride changed the location due to the repavement of Bridge Street this summer.

One of the most vital pieces to a puzzle can never go missing. You will never get the full effect of the overall picture with one simple piece not in place. That is why it is so crucial that Ashtabula Pride, Inc. urges our most important part of the June 15 Pride Festival to reach out to partners like you for assistance. Our Volunteer Team has been scrambling for months trying to reach out via social media posts and flyers in local stores to encourage people to sign up as VOLUNTEERS and help us bring forth this amazing time of love and celebration! We have a very detailed application to complete to become a volunteer. The reason for this is to ensure ALL of our volunteers are either LGBTQ+ community members or they are allies of the community. This will give us an overall feeling of protection and trust while the festival is happening. We help to train our VOLUNTEERS on what to look for and how to respond in the event of situations they may not be used to dealing with, and we make sure their comfort level at this task is 100% before giving the approval to be considered a VOLUNTEER for the next upcoming event. There are times and different departmental teams you can apply for during the festival, and we assure you we will accommodate you as best we can! If this isn't for you, then tell someone you know that you feel would be great at helping us out at the festival! Please apply on our website under the SIGN UP tab.

On June 15, 2024, Ashtabula Pride, Inc. will bring you Pride Festival from 11 AM to 9 PM on Bridge Street in Ashtabula, OH. The event features food, artisans, and more. There will be shops and restaurants participating. Entertainment will be provided by Lotz Productions, with local bands and singers.

Ashtabula Pride Inc. was founded in July 2023 by Michael S. Riffe (Mona Lotz drag performer) of Ashtabula, OH, and Rebekah Beeman of Conneaut, OH. Before becoming a nonprofit corporation of its own, Ashtabula Pride was formerly known as Pride Ashtabula County, which was Ashtabula County's pride festival under the LGBTQ+ Coalition of Ashtabula County, Inc. Riffe, along with Bill Daywalt, AJ Petro, and John Werner brought the county's first festival in 2021 which welcomed over 3,000 attendees to the festival. Due to the amount of work and planning involved, the Coalition's board decided it would be best to relinquish the festival's ownership and turn it over to Riffe and Beeman to create a new and self-sustainable organization. The two formed a board of directors and an advisory board and began planning the first annual Drag in the New Year, which will be held Dec 31, 2023, at the Conneaut Human Resource Center in Conneaut, OH. The event will include dinner provided by Wade's Pastabilities, raffles, a cash bar, a DJ with Dancing, and a drag show hosted by Mona Lotz. The festival will be held on the 3rd Saturday in June from 11 am-9 pm on Bridge Street in the historic Ashtabula Harbor with vendors, food, and entertainment. To get tickets for New Year's Eve or to become a part of the festival, see the organization's website www.ashtabulapride.org.

Ashtabula Pride, Inc. was founded in June 2023 by Rebekah Beeman and Michael Riffe as a new vision and focus for the county’s Pride festival. The first festival was started in 2020 by the late Pastor Bill Daywalt, Pastor John Werner, Librarian A.J. Petro, and Drag Queen Mona Lotz (Riffe), who met weekly to transform Daywalt’s plan of a Pride Picnic into a much larger event, a PRIDE FESTIVAL! In just a few weeks, those four and a select number of volunteers orchestrated the first annual Pride Ashtabula County festival, attended by over 3,000 people of all ages and walks of life! Immediately following the festival, the four and their volunteers formed the LGBTQ Coalition of Ashtabula County Inc., focusing on outreach and education for the county.