Riverside Pride is moving its annual festival to Faith United Church due to safety concerns over escalating rhetoric.
NEW BRAUNFELS, Texas — An annual LGBTQIA+ festival in New Braunfels is moving to a new venue just days before showtime. After three years at the Comal County Fairgrounds, Riverside Pride says safety concerns and growing public backlash led them to change locations.
The new site, Faith United Church of Christ (UCC) in New Braunfels, will host a condensed, family-friendly festival on Saturday. Organizers say that while the schedule has been shortened, their mission remains the same — to support, connect, and advocate for the LGBTQIA+ community.
Security concerns spark the move
Riverside Pride leaders say they met at length with the Comal County Fair Association, and later with New Braunfels Police, to conduct a security assessment. After that meeting, they collectively agreed to “err on the side of caution.”
“Some small pockets of rhetoric were escalating online,” said Mike Stegen, a Board Member of Riverside Pride. “We noticed increased concern and began to expect protestors, which isn’t new for us — but this year it escalated quite quickly in a way we hadn’t observed in the past two years.”
“The nature of some of the folks who had questions and were protesting — behaviors changed a bit,” he added. “Given what we’d seen, we couldn’t say for sure the fairgrounds was the safest place to have it.”
Stegen said the large size of the fairgrounds made security more challenging.
“You could put 50 or 60 officers there,” he said. “While that provides a thick layer of security, it’s still not a guarantee. A smaller venue reigns it in a little bit.”
A political warning
The decision came shortly after State Rep. Carrie Isaac (R-Dripping Springs) sent a letter to the Comal County Fair and Rodeo Board, warning them that hosting a drag performance open to “all ages” could put the venue at legal risk under Senate Bill 12 a law passed in the 88th Legislative Session restricting “sexually oriented performances” in front of minors.
“We have a law on the books that makes this a criminal offense, civil offense,” Isaac said. “I wanted to warn them and let them know they could be held liable if something were to happen.”
Isaac said she learned about the event from constituents who expressed concern and urged her to act.
“It makes me sad we have to get involved to protect our children,” she said. “I don’t think the [Comal County Fair] board was aware they were having an all-age drag show.”
She said she emailed organizers suggesting they make the performance adults-only but did not receive a response.
While parts of SB 12 remain blocked in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, Isaac said the law still poses a risk for venues.
“It’s being held up at an injunction, so it’s not law right at this moment,” she said. “The law is on the books but being stalled… they’re treading on thin ice here.”
Organizers push back against misinformation
Stegen said online misinformation added fuel to the controversy, with unauthorized posts circulating under Riverside Pride’s name.
“There was a pretty broad misinformation campaign launched,” he said. “It started with folks who shared and created posts as if they were on behalf of Riverside Pride, when those folks weren’t authorized to speak for us.”
He also rejected claims that the event is inappropriate for families.
“There’s a lot of misperception about what drag shows are,” Stegen said. “That’s a form of cultural art in the LGBTQ community.”
“For this particular event on the schedule, it is family-friendly,” he added. “A wide misperception is that a drag show is aimed at grooming children or sexualizing children — that’s not what it’s about at all. It’s not a crime.”
Stegen acknowledged that Riverside Pride may host certain future events where children are discouraged from attending, but says all Pride celebrations have always been family-friendly.
“We’ve learned we all share a lot of the same sentiments. We don’t tolerate sexual deviation or misconduct. We don’t tolerate grooming children — that’s not in our language,” he added. “As long as you’re respectful, we welcome everyone.”
Organizers say while plans for a traditional drag performance are on hold due to the pivot, they will be featuring an award-winning musical artist, Flamy Grant, dressed in drag.
Fair Association responds
In a statement shared Tuesday, the Comal County Fair Executive Board wrote:
“Moving forward, we will be revising our rental contracts to align more closely with the mission of the organization while maintaining a nonpartisan approach.”
The president of the Comal County Fair Association, Brett Neely, told KENS 5 Thursday that Riverside Pride has been on the grounds for the past three years “without incident or concerns like the ones that came up this year.”
“It is too early to speculate what types of events would be impacted by future contract discussions,” Neely said. “We have not set a date or time to start that process. Any specific details about the move will need to be obtained from Riverside Pride, as they decided to move their event before our board was scheduled to meet.”