Celebrating Pride With Emerald Village

At Bhang, a big part of celebrating Pride month is focused on supporting our communities in the pursuit of everyone’s rights to be recognized, heard, understood, accepted, and respected. This past June, part of that pursuit included a month-long fundraising campaign and event in partnership with Emerald Village, and the Artist Tree Dispensary in West Hollywood to raise money for Being Alive LA, a nonprofit focusing on the mental health and wellness of people living with HIV and AIDS. 

The campaign itself was a blast and consisted of a fierce month-long competition between five local drag queens to see who could raise the most money for Being Alive LA. The winner would be crowned Queen of the Emerald Village and begin their year-long reign.  

 

 

The donation period kicked off with a party on May 22nd at the Artist Tree’s Studio Consumption Lounge, where we met the five competing queens and got a taste of their fabulous personalities. For the next month they would campaign to raise donations in their name in a bid for the crown. One donation counted as one vote, and the two contestants with the most votes/donations would make it to the final round.  

On June 22nd we gathered for the finale party at The Studio Consumption Lounge. The top two queens with the most donations faced-off in a fiery lip sync battle to secure a final round of donations in their name. At the end Kalista Stage came out of top and claimed the crown. 

 

 

We were super proud to be a partner and sponsor for this event, including some fun gift bags, giveaways and raffles, along with a booth at both the kick-off and finale parties. More importantly, though, it’s events like this that help us stay rooted in our community and provide an opportunity to give back. 

If you’d like to find out more about how we support our community, or would like to find out how to work with us in some way or form, connect with us on our socials, or contact us here.