On the Beat: Mad Pride March and the Peace.Fest

Vermont’s busy summer music festival season is in full swing, with two unique events coming up this weekend.

First up is the Mad Pride March, taking place on Saturday, July 13, in downtown Burlington. Initially conceived and started in Toronto, Ontario, in 1993, Mad Pride is a celebration organized by psychiatric survivors and those suffering from mental illness; the event was envisioned as a way to battle discrimination, fight for rights and increase communication within the community. The movement soon spread across the globe, everywhere from Brazil to Madagascar to South Korea.

For the past three years in Vermont, a collection of organizations, spearheaded by the Poultney-based nonprofit MadFreedom, has brought the Mad Pride March to Burlington. In previous years, Montpelier and Brattleboro hosted the event.

This year’s iteration starts with a noon meetup at the Hood Plant parking lot on King Street. Once everyone is organized, the march starts, with the procession moving down Church Street and arriving at Battery Park around 1 p.m. There will be a series of speakers and tables for assorted organizations such as Pathways Vermont, Another Way and Disability Rights Vermont, capped off by a performance from singer-songwriter and psychiatric survivor Sunny War. Her 2023 album, Anarchist Gospel, was singled out by Rolling Stone as one of “The 25 Best Country and Americana Albums of 2023.”

“Mad Pride is a way of making space for all of these very real, human experiences without bringing in traditional judgments,” said co-organizer Chris Nial, a peer support programs team leader at Pathways Vermont. “It’s a way to make room for people to tell their own stories and share them with a community that we hope to foster more cohesion among.”

To register for the march, visit madfreedom.org/madpride.

Also happening on Saturday, July 13, is the third annual Peace.Fest in Lincoln. Held at the Sunray Meditation Society, a Buddhist dharma organization, the Peace.Fest is a completely substance-free music festival — so leave the beer and weed at home, folks.

Leaning into the vibe, the fest offers workshops, community art projects and even a chöd offering. There will be food trucks and mini golf as well, but the crux of the fest is a daylong lineup of Vermont music. The Lincoln Choir welcome everyone to Sunray at 2 p.m. They’re followed by a sprawling, diverse lineup including Latin psych-rock band Mal Maïz, rapper Omega Jade, indie-pop singer Andriana & the Bananas, and Americana act Danny & the Parts.

For more information and tickets, check out sunray.org/peacefest.

This article appears in The Cartoon Issue 2024.

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