25 Years of CNY Pagan Pride Day | An Open Letter
Now more than ever, as we draw closer to the 25th annual CNY Pagan Pride Day, we feel called to revisit our purpose, share our hopes for the festival and connect thoughtfully with our community.
CNY Pagan Pride Day began in 2000 as a local continuation of the national Pagan Pride festival, which started two years prior. The original mission was simple and remains unchanged on the Pagan Pride Project website: “To foster pride in Pagan identity through education, activism, charity and community.”
They also outlined three simple requirements for an official PPD celebration: facilitating a public ritual, hosting a food drive and publishing event press releases.
It’s hard to look back on 27 years of Pagan Pride Day- and the 25 we’ve spent at Long Branch Park- without asking, “This is a good thing- how do we keep it going?”
With this year being such an important milestone for CNY PPD, we’ve taken extra care in strengthening those original three core activities. This means having as many food donation bins as the Food Bank of Central New York will give, putting extra attention on all three of our public rituals, and continuing to activate our social media and email channels in tandem with the traditional press release.
Looking to the future of CNY PPD, the committee has developed two key priorities:
Create a foundation that keeps the festival active for years to come.
Continually reconnect to Pagan Pride Project’s original spirit of education, activism, charity and community.
The first priority is simple: CNY PPD can only continue if we have a large volunteer base, stable organizing committee and a thriving sponsoring organization, Church of the Greenwood. We also need broader awareness and a warm invitation extended to all aspects of the event.
In recent years, we’ve made big shifts toward this priority. The event’s leadership changed hands, and our planning committee was established to allow former leaders a chance to relax and actually enjoy the festival they built. New systems were implemented to help this small, volunteer-run committee stay on top of all the moving parts. Procedures were updated to match current county and state policies, making the event safer and preventing CNY PPD from being cancelled due to lack of compliance. And this year, Church of the Greenwood will have a much larger presence at the festival as part of its ongoing revival.
As for our second priority, CNY PPD has long been a connecting ground. The mission of PPD is for all Pagans and spirit-led folks to feel supported, seen and enriched – regardless of age or path. Last year, this energy pushed us to bring back Community Tables, but there’s more to do. This mission should weave through every aspect of the festival- from workshops and performances to vendor selection, the public rituals and even awareness of the festival.
Our region has a vibrant web of experienced practitioners with so much knowledge and wisdom to share, alongside a growing crop of curious, eager learners. As organizers, we believe it’s our responsibility to tap into this rich community first and foremost to offer a spectrum of experiences. While diverse representation is an ever-ongoing process, small but consistent steps are how we’ll stay committed, year after year.
With each festival, the planning committee tries to provide the best festival experience we can. It’s no secret that in recent years, long-time participants and attendees have felt the ripples of change as much as our organizers.
Improvements developed by the committee have resulted in both successes and missteps. With changing leadership, key volunteer connections were lost. To keep up with costs and afford necessary improvements, registration prices and sponsor tiers were raised. In efforts to open the door for new faces, some long-standing participants didn’t make this year’s lineup.
Yet, we’ve also experienced great wins. Year after year, record food bank donations roll in- both monetarily and in the bins. Reorganizing the festival grounds has allowed us to increase the number of booths and workshops available. Each year, accommodations are added and improved to better serve all members of our community. In 2023, we saw the highest attendance count on record. And we’re just getting started.
But we can’t do it alone. Through community support and generosity, we can make our 25th annual Autumn Equinox festival a celebration to remember!
Here are a few ways you can help:
Share our event details with a friend (Saturday, Sept. 20, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m., Long Branch Park, Liverpool, N.Y.)
Come to our kick-off party, hosted by Church of the Greenwood (Sunday, Aug. 17, 1-3 p.m., First UU, Syracuse, N.Y.)
Sign up to volunteer, even if it’s an hour. Help display signage, sell t-shirts, take down tents, answer guest questions or pull our vendor support wagon.
Continue to share your thoughts with us, constructive feedback is how we make each festival a better overall experience.
We also ask for your trust and patience as our small team of volunteer organizers works hard to bring everything together.
Keep showing up and embodying the Pagan Pride mission- whether that's by attending our festival, starting one of your own in an underserved area, attending others throughout the region, or by building community in the off-season.
And of course, join us for our 25th year at Long Branch Park, where familiar sights and sounds await you. Toad will be waiting at the fork in the path to welcome you. Our t-shirt tent will be stocked high with beautiful t-shirts designed by the delightfully talented Jess Trainham. As the sun sets in the west, drums will begin to pulse. At the gate, a long line of food donation bins will be overflowing. And, Gods willing, we’ll have good weather once again!
We can’t wait to see you at our 25th CNY Pagan Pride Day!
-Church of the Greenwood and the CNY Pagan Pride Committee,
Cheyenne, Amy, Kylee and Maxx
