Charlottesville to have first Pride festival 

The first-ever Charlottesville Pride Festival will be held Saturday from 2 to 6 p.m. at Lee Park.

A new group, Cville Pride, has formed to organize the event. President Amy Sarah Marshall says it started small with just one vendor and two organizations, though things have taken off quickly.

Organizers now have more than 50 sponsors and vendors, along with about 600 attendees planning to come via the organization’s Facebook page.

Organizers plan a bounty of events for the day including poetry, music and drag performances and also food and kids’ activities. For more information, find the Cville group on Facebook. Lee Park is located one block north of the Downtown Mall, between Jefferson Street, First Street N.E., Market Street and Second Street N.E.

Mikey Torres of Glitterlust. The band performs next week at Phasefest. (Blade file photo by Michael Key)

Phasefest kicks off Thursday

Phasefest kicks off Thursday at Phase One (525 8th St. SE Washington). Tickets are at $15 at the door. It runs through the weekend.

Look for indie bands like Bitch, Athen Boys Choir, Angie Head, People at Parties, Mitten, Hunter Valentine, D.C. band Glitterlust, Vanity Theft and many others. Weekend passes are $55. Tickets for individual nights are $15 Thursday, $20 for Sept. 22 and $25 for Sept. 22 and are available only at the door. Visit phasefest.com for details.

Center Hosts GenderQueer group

The GenderQueer D.C. Discussion Group will hold its monthly meeting at the D.C. Center (1318 U Street, NW) Tuesday at 7 p.m.

Every third Tuesday of each month, this support group meets to discuss its personal experiences with identifying and living outside the gender binary. They connect with those who are bigender, agender and others.

For more information, visit dccenter.org.