The Statesville Pride Festival is set to kick off this Saturday, and organizers said it will be bigger and better than ever, but still the same celebration of community and love.

"It's an important event to have, to be out and visible to our community, for comfort, for networking friends," Dennis Brown said. He is the president of the Statesville PRIDE Alliance. "You grow up with a family, but you also find your found family outside of that, and that is your chosen family and I think there's a great sense of community.

"I love Statesville, I grew up here, moved away, then came back, so it's wonderful to see the city progress and be more accepting and open to people," Brown said.

The Statesville PRIDE Alliance, a nonprofit organization based in Statesville, organizes the event. It is ded

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