Stark Pride Marks Fifth Year With Guest
The Stark Pride Festival will be June 13 in downtown Canton. Featuring drag queen star Onya Nurve, the event is needed more than ever, organizers say.
- The Stark Pride Festival will be 2 to 9 p.m. June 13 at Centennial Plaza in downtown Canton.
- Entertainment will include Onya Nurve, a Stark County native who won the 2025 season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”
- Stark Pride also will feature guest speakers, food, activities for children and more.
CANTON − The Stark Pride Festival is marking its fifth year with a special celebrity guest.
Stark County native Onya Nurve, who won “RuPaul’s Drag Race” last year, will sing and perform at the June 13 festival at Centennial Plaza in downtown Canton.
Organizers are excited to have Onya Nurve among the entertainers. And they are proud to host another festival celebrating diversity, acceptance, equality, love and inclusion.
“This year, at the request of our youth, we went with a fairly high-end headliner Madison Rose, and at the last minute, we’ve wound up with Onya Nurve,” said Jonathan Becker, board president of Stark Pride and chairman of the entertainment committee. “And that came about because (Onya Nurve) and our (Stark Pride Festival) emcee Kardi Redd Diamond are good friends, and they’re going to perform together.
“I think our local community’s excited to have a local individual who had gained celebrity status come and visit us,” he added.
Becker said Stark Pride is not planning anything specifically to commemorate the fifth-year anniversary of the festival, which started in 2022.
But the purpose of the Stark Pride Festival remains as vital as ever, he said.
“It’s an incredibly important event for the community at-large,” Becker said. “I often say Pride saves lives, and it does, clear and simple.
“Every year, there’s at least one person who finds their way to Pride who finds themselves among so many people who are like they are,” Becker said. “It allows them to know they have a foundation to stand on; it allows them to know they have family everywhere, and they’ll lift them up and support them.”
Here’s what else you need to know about the Stark Pride Festival.
1. Drag queen star returns home
Onya Nurve’s real name is Justin Woody, a former Perry High School student who studied painting at the Cleveland Institute of Art and also performed in shows at the Players Guild Theatre in Canton and in other local productions.
In the spring of 2025, Onya Nurve was crowned America’s “next drag superstar” by winning “RuPaul’s Drag Race” in the 17th season of the Emmy Award-winning series.
The entertainer won a $200,000 grand prize, crown and scepter and a year’s supply of high-end cosmetics.
“I found ‘Drag Race,’ and there was something about the queerness, the family, and the artistic endeavor that I was attracted to,” Onya Nurve told Entertainment Weekly at the time.
Onya Nurve released a remix this year of the hip-hop song, “In and Out,” featuring Kardi Redd Diamond, a Stark County native and fellow drag performer.
Diamond is excited to perform with the celebrity at Stark Pride at 3 p.m., following opening ceremonies.
“I’m super excited to be hosting another year of Stark Pride,” Diamond said. “It means the world to me to be hosting pride in my hometown where I was born. Also, to share a stage with Onya Nurve, our season 17 (‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’) winner and (a) Canton native as well is very full circle.
“We both went to the same high school and also participated in the arts,” Diamond said. “I love them so very much and will forever be grateful to them. We’re about to have an amazing time as always.”
2. Who is Madison Rose?
Madison Rose will be performing at 4:30 p.m.
Stark Pride runs 2 to 9 p.m. at Centennial Plaza, 330 Court Ave. NW along Market Avenue N. Admission is free.
A Pride walk will start at 1:15 p.m. at the EN-RICH-MENT Arts Education Center, 901 Market Ave. N and end at Centennial Plaza.
Madison Rose is a musical artist known for pop, dance-pop and electropop and drag-inspired style.
Rose has opened for JORDY and headlined more than 20 Pride events across the country, including Cincinnati, St. Louis, Detroit, Columbus, Boston, Pittsburgh and Akron, according to the performer’s website.
Rose also re-recorded the song “True Colors” for Spotify Singles’ Cyndi Lauper tribute in 2023. The artist released the song “Superpower” in March, following the albums “TECHNICOLOR” in 2022 and “Monochrome: The White Album” in 2025.
3. Who else is entertaining at Stark Pride?
Beginning at 2 p.m. with the opening ceremony, there will be various entertainers, including the Bluecoats and the EN-RICH-MENT drumline, along with DJ Krooze and the band Time Cat and other performers and singers, including Monica Mod, Adele Pickle, Oddriana, Marquis Gaylord and April T. Cox.
Ethan Soza, a hip-hop artist who was at the first Stark Pride Festival, will take the stage at 6 p.m. The Stark County pop band The Scenic Route will perform at 8 p.m.
4. What else is happening at Stark Pride?
Food trucks, vendors, organizations, exhibitors and more will be on hand.
There are also a youth art exhibit and activities for children, including art and craft projects.
“Pride is for everybody,” Becker said. “It’s not just for the (LGBTQIA+) community but it’s our opportunity to welcome everyone into our family and celebrate humanity at-large. We would love for everyone to come. It’s a very fun event; it’s family friendly and it’s just great people having a great time.”
5. Special speakers
During opening ceremonies, there will be guest speakers, including Mayor William V. Sherer II, U.S. Rep. Emilia Sykes, D-Akron, Joseph Ze Soza of Equality Ohio and Monica Ramos.
Ramos of Canton is the mother of the late Anthony Ramos Jr., who took his own life at age 30 in 2024. Anthony was a member of the LGBTQ+ community.
In March, Monica Ramos held an art exhibition in honor of her son at EN-RICH-MENT Arts Education Center in downtown Canton to celebrate his artwork and music and to raise mental health awareness.
“I accepted the honor to speak at Pride to say thanks first of all to the community who have helped and supported my son, Anthony, when he was here,” she said. “And I want to mention how important mental health changes are especially for men and how it’s okay for men to ask for help…”
Reach Ed at [email protected]. Follow on Instagram at ed_balint and TikTok @edwardbalint
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