Latest / WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio / Talk Line: Gabbi McKanna shares the latest on Dixon Pride Festival 2026

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Talk Line: Gabbi McKanna shares the latest on Dixon Pride Festival 2026 · WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio

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  Speaker 1: Good morning, Sok Valley. You've joined the Waking crew here
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  Speaker 1: on FM ninety five to one and AM fourteen sixty WIXN.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: It's eight sixteen on your Wednesday morning, and that means
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  Speaker 1: it's time for talk line and I'm joined in the
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  Speaker 1: booth for the first time on my show Running under
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  Speaker 1: the Helm. Gabby McKenna, treasure for Sock Valley Pride. Gabby,
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  Speaker 1: how are you doing well this morning? Thank you lovely
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  Speaker 1: to have you in here. Were finally having some reasonable
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  Speaker 1: spring weather. Yes, so a great day. I'm glad you
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  Speaker 1: were able to connect in person. I always love it
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  Speaker 1: when we're able to do this in person. So Sok
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  Speaker 1: Valley Pride, for anybody who doesn't know, kind of give
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  Speaker 1: us a little introduction to the organization.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, we're a five to one C three founded about
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  Speaker 2: five years ago. We host the annual Dixon Pride Festival
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  Speaker 2: and are starting to kind of expand out and do
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  Speaker 2: other local pride themed.
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  Speaker 1: Events wonderful and so that's kind of where we're starting off. Today.
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  Speaker 1: Is one of the bigger events that you got coming
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  Speaker 1: up this year?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, we have the Dixon Pride Festival. It's our five
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  Speaker 2: year anniversaries We're very excited about that Saturday, June thirteenth
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  Speaker 2: at Page Park in Dixon, one to nine pm. And
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  Speaker 2: our admission costs this year seven dollars for twenty one
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  Speaker 2: plus and five dollars for twenty and under.
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  Speaker 1: Perfect. Perfect And where are people able to Can they
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  Speaker 1: pay in advance or is this the day of thing?
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  Speaker 2: Day of Yeah, we have Venmo options for electronic payment
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  Speaker 2: or just pay cash at the door.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, awesome? And so when did you say this started again?
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  Speaker 2: Twenty twenty two was our first one. So this is
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  Speaker 2: our fifth fifth Pride festival.
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  Speaker 1: Wonderful. I love hearing that you've been able to keep
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  Speaker 1: this going. Where was kind of the you know, the
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  Speaker 1: idea behind having the festival and making it part of
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  Speaker 1: downtown Dixon.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so there was just a group of us who thought,
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  Speaker 2: you know, we need some pride here in Dixon for Pride,
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  Speaker 2: and we just kind of started planning it. Our first one,
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  Speaker 2: we really thought we would probably get like maybe five
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  Speaker 2: hundred people, and we got twenty five hundred people to come,
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  Speaker 2: so really blew us out of the water with how
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  Speaker 2: much the community supported us. And it's just grown from there.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think how much the community was craving
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  Speaker 1: that support and knowing that they had this organization to
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  Speaker 1: come in and be there for them, and it just
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  Speaker 1: continued to grow. From what I've seen with the festivals
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  Speaker 1: each year.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I would say our peak attendance was probably about
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  Speaker 2: four thousand people one year. We're somewhere We usually end
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  Speaker 2: up somewhere around three thousand people for attendance. So we've
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  Speaker 2: got some really great entertainment.
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  Speaker 1: This year.
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  Speaker 2: We have DJ Wayne, who is always at our festivals
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  Speaker 2: just kind of playing music and keeping people energized. We're
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  Speaker 2: bringing back Elizabeth von Presley. We had her a couple
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  Speaker 2: of years ago as kind of one of our main entertainers.
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  Speaker 2: She hails from Cedar Rapid. She's a musician and a
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  Speaker 2: performer known for kind of her pink themed performances and
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  Speaker 2: just super high energy. People really loved her, so we're
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  Speaker 2: happy to have her back. Of course, we have our
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  Speaker 2: drag performances, so we have Cocoa mont Trees. This year's
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  Speaker 2: kind of our headliner. She appeared on Rue Paul's Drag
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  Speaker 2: Race season five as well as All Stars season two.
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  Speaker 2: She's really well known in the Las Vegas drag scene
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  Speaker 2: and has a big following so we're excited to have
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  Speaker 2: her as well. We have Anti Heroin, who's a big
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  Speaker 2: local favorite. People really love Auntie, so she always graciously
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  Speaker 2: grace is our stage, but people know her from the
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  Speaker 2: Rockford area. But also she did appear on season six
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  Speaker 2: of Dragula. I think people love her vibe because it's
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  Speaker 2: more of like a horror vibe. Yeah, even like people
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  Speaker 2: of all ages really love Auntie, so we're we're thankful
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  Speaker 2: for her to set aside the time to come to
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  Speaker 2: our festival. We've got Ben's Bentley Balanciaga who comes from
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  Speaker 2: the Quad Cities, and then we also have Barbara bush
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  Speaker 2: Light who's our host and entertainment coordinator. And then we
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  Speaker 2: also have a Kasha Voyer and Apollo Venom Summers who
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  Speaker 2: hails from Chicago, Akasha coming from Milwaukee, so we have
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  Speaker 2: a ton of different performers this year. We're also doing
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  Speaker 2: our drag Battles again, which we did last year. So
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  Speaker 2: drag Queen's kind of you know, singing and dancing to
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  Speaker 2: battle it out for crowd favorite. That was hugely popular
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  Speaker 2: last year, so we are bringing you back again this year,
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  Speaker 2: so we're excited for that as well.
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  Speaker 1: It's a fierce competition.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a lot going on on that stage. I
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  Speaker 2: admittedly do not get to see a lot of it
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  Speaker 2: kind of helping to run the festival, but I always
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  Speaker 2: hear really good things.
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  Speaker 1: So you got to ask them to give you just
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  Speaker 1: just ten fifteen minutes to be able to go to
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  Speaker 1: really immerse yourself in it. It's actually it's it's fantastic
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  Speaker 1: you bringing up anti heroin. So I went to college
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  Speaker 1: much later, so saying this, it does line up. But
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  Speaker 1: I got to do a story on a drag show
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  Speaker 1: she was doing at the former Starlights now now the
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  Speaker 1: spark Over in Sterling, and it was a fantastic show.
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  Speaker 1: First time I had been to one, had a great time,
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  Speaker 1: and she was just such a pleasure to speak with. Yes, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: it really just was so. Yeah, you got to tell them,
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  Speaker 1: you're doing all this hard work to bring this event here.
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  Speaker 1: You need at least ten minutes to really appreciate the
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  Speaker 1: drag battles. They're wonderful. Anyways, I gotta let you go on.
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  Speaker 1: I just I'm with you on that.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, No, all good, And I usually do catch part
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  Speaker 2: of the later show. The earlier hours of the festival
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  Speaker 2: are a little bit busy for me, but yeah, so
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  Speaker 2: that's what we've got this year. We usually have somewhere
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  Speaker 2: around one hundred and fifty vendors, and of course we're
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  Speaker 2: always thankful for our sponsors who support the festival as
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  Speaker 2: well and help us keep it affordable for people to come.
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  Speaker 2: But all our entertainment is family friendly. It is a
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  Speaker 2: family friendly festival, so we want people to feel welcome
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  Speaker 2: all ages to come. So we're you know, strict our
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  Speaker 2: performers about what we allow in our vendors, about what
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  Speaker 2: we allow and not allow. So you know, kids, adults,
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  Speaker 2: We have our you know, elder gays, I guess you
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  Speaker 2: could call them. Everyone really enjoys themselves at the festival
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  Speaker 2: and yeah, so it's.
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  Speaker 1: Always a good time, positive vibes. The festival has always
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  Speaker 1: been handled very responsibly, very well organized, so it is
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  Speaker 1: a good time. Get on out there, you know, show
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  Speaker 1: your support, just enjoy yourself and be immersed with the community.
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  Speaker 1: And part of this you have a raffle to kind
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  Speaker 1: of help along with this, right, Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: We so we just did a drag Bingo fundraiser a
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  Speaker 2: couple of weeks ago that was very successful, and we
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  Speaker 2: are doing a fifty to fifty Raffle as well. So
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  Speaker 2: we are selling tickets. We have them for sale around town.
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  Speaker 2: Our volunteers are selling them. But if you are interested
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  Speaker 2: in purchasing Raffle ticket, go ahead and message our Facebook
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  Speaker 2: page and we'll get you connected with someone to make
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  Speaker 2: that happen. And then our drawing is June twelfth, So
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  Speaker 2: we do a couple different fundraisers throughout the year. Just two.
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  Speaker 2: It's a very expensive festival. Anyone who's done an event
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  Speaker 2: knows how pricey these things can be, and we definitely
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  Speaker 2: want to keep it an affordable community event so everyone
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  Speaker 2: can come, and so we do make an effort to
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  Speaker 2: do a lot of fundraising to keep those costs down
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  Speaker 2: for our attendees. So yeah, So people can find us
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  Speaker 2: on Facebook at SoC Valley Pride. If you want to
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  Speaker 2: keep up with fundraisers we're doing, or information about the
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  Speaker 2: festival or anything like that.
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  Speaker 1: Wonderful, get online, get your be part of the raffle,
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  Speaker 1: mark your calendars, come down to the event. Gabby, I
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  Speaker 1: love this. Anything else you wanted to share this morning,
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  Speaker 1: I think that's it. Well, you know, I appreciate all
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  Speaker 1: the work that you folks are doing, having that support
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  Speaker 1: here in the community, and then the festival is just
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  Speaker 1: always something to look forward to each year. Whether you're
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  Speaker 1: a part of the community or not, it's just such
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  Speaker 1: a great time, positive vibes. Absolutely love it. Thank you
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  Speaker 1: so much for coming on the show, Gabby.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks for having me.