While chatting over tacos in late May, Carmel High School students Aanchal Agarwal and Ethan Stoehr came up with the idea for a Carmel Pride event.
Carmel Pride 2021 is set for 4 to 8 p.m. June 27 at the Carter Green lawn at the Center for the Performing Arts.
“We have a great team working on this, which is why we’ve been able to pump it out so quickly,” Agarwal said. “We have a lot of people passionate about it. It’s been great we’ve been able to get it done so quickly.”
Agarwal said some people have never been to a Pride event, and with COVID-19 restrictions loosening, it felt like a good time to celebrate.
“I think there is great appetite for something like this,” Agarwal said. “A lot of people don’t think that Carmel is a city for things like this. You might consider Indianapolis. Ethan and I were thinking from the beginning that is even more reason for Carmel to do this to come out and show the (LGBTQ) community that we do support them and make Carmel a more welcoming place.”
Daniel Tanner is helping arrange the entertainment and outreach for the event. Tanner said there will be student bands and Indianapolis drag queen performers.
Tanner said there will be live music by area performers, vendors, food trucks and speakers.
Tanner said the Carmel Pride committee hopes to make the event annual. Agarwal, Stoehr and Tanner will all be seniors in the fall.
“We have a group of 30 to 40 students involved that are organizing different parts of the event,” Tanner said. “It’s grown in popularity quite quickly. We got a lot of following on the event on social media. A lot of the LGBTQ+ community were ready for a reason to celebrate after COVID (pandemic restrictions were eased).”
