'Hetero Awesome Fest' to be held near Idaho Capitol during Pride

The owner of a bar and restaurant in Idaho says he plans to host a “Hetero Awesome Fest” near the state Capitol in June to coincide with Pride Month for the LGBTQ

Mark Fitzpatrick, the owner of the Old State Saloon outside of Boise, said the two-day festival in Cecil D. Andrus Park was inspired by events held last year in response to Pride celebrations.

The festival will be held June 20 and 21 across the street from the Capitol. It was first reported by NBC News on Tuesday.

“Heterosexual Awesomness Festival is coming to Boise. This isn’t just another festival. It’s a movement, a celebration of faith, family and freedom, right in the heart of Idaho,” a narrator says over a video on the event’s Instagram page.

Fitzpatrick told NBC last year after his “Heterosexual Awesomeness Month,” that there was no hate involved in the planning of his events.

In a recent video shared online, he said he didn’t “set out to be negative” about other people, he was wanting to “celebrate what God’s design was.”

He told NBC that the festival was not about “targeting any group” but instead about raising awareness for “practices we find troubling, such as the encouragement of ‘gender transitions’ among children or their exposure of inappropriate content.”

While Fitzpatrick has said the festival isn’t about hate for the LGBTQ community, his restaurant and bar account said the LGBTQ agenda is “wicked, perverse, and victimizes children.”

Fiztpatrick said in a video online that he was inspired to create the June events when he and his family were discussing how to spend his daughter’s birthday last year. He said they could not go to downtown Boise, where Pride events were held.

"I was thinking to myself, ‘What could we do to celebrate in June that would be different than what’s going on downtown? Can we be different than what Pride has been celebrating every June? What if we celebrated God’s design for sexuality? What would that look like?’ And within a few seconds, I thought, ‘Man, heterosexuality is awesome.’” 

Pride Month organizers in Boise have not held events in June since 2020. Events are now held in September after organizers opted for better weather and due to COVID-19 pandemic precautions at the time.