BREMERTON—For most of the afternoon July 18, Evergreen Rotary Park looked like the beginning and end of a dozen rainbows.

Kitsap’s Pride festival rang in its 19th year with drag performances and dancing. Over 500 people RSVP’d on Facebook.

“We’re super happy with the turnout,” said Michael Goodnow, president of Kitsap Pride Network. He expected over 1,500 people to pass through the event.

It’s a far cry from it’s origins at a private farm in Southworth.

“The way it’s grown it makes my heart really happy, I’m not gonna lie,” said Indika Haze, a drag performer who’s attended the Pride festival for over a decade. “I never would have thought 10 years ago that poor little Kitsap County would have this great festival.”

After changing locations several times, the festival landed at Evergreen Park in 2005, where’s it’s been hosted ever since.

“I think it’s really important that we’re here now,” Haze said. “Bremerton being such a heavily based military presence, I think having it here at the park is really a great opportunity to bring all those different aspects of life together.”

Haze, who’s performed all over the country, said he hasn’t performed in a more accepting place than Kitsap County.

“We actually get a chance to come together as a community here in Kitsap County. It’s one of the best melting pots I’ve ever had a chance to be a part of,” Haze said.

Bremerton City Council President Greg Wheeler called a day of celebration; one in which people can take stock in progress.

“Our society is moving forward and it’s just a wonderful thing and I don’t want to distract from that but I do want to recognize that fact that there’s a lot of work left to be done” Wheeler said. “And folks like myself, many around us, many in the city feel that until all discrimination is wiped out and gone that our work is not done.”

Bremerton Police Chief Steve Strachan thanked those in attendance — especially those who were “fighting the fight” when gay rights weren’t as politically popular — for helping move civil rights forward.

“I want to thank you, not just as your police chief but as a fellow human being for helping us do the right thing and move our society in the right direction,” Strachan said.