Rainbow Picnic
Frederick Avenue Gallery's F.A.G Summer

June 28, 2025, 12-3PM
at Gordan Park, Milwaukee, WI

Rainbow Picnic is a Pride Month gathering organized by Frederick Avenue Gallery (F.A.G.) in collaboration with Venus Social Club, created to recall the spirit of the earliest queer meetups—before corporate floats and sponsorship banners—when Pride looked like friends gathering in a park and choosing to be visible together. F.A.G. founder Seth Ter Haar first heard stories from a local lesbian in the Riverwest community who met her life partner at one of the original Rainbow Picnics many years ago. That memory became a catalyst for revival—an effort to bring back a space where connection could unfold organically in public.
 

A rainbow picnic during Pride Month is both simple and symbolic. It reclaims public space not through spectacle but through softness—blankets on grass, shared dishes, sun on bare shoulders. It honors the truth that queer survival has always depended on chosen family, potluck tables, and afternoons safe enough to exhale. Guests contributed food to share, from homemade dishes to grocery store fruit trays, while DJ sets carried the mood across the park. Our tagline said it best: No Mean Gays Allowed. Public space is political, and pleasure is protest. All are welcome.

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Credits:

Host Organization: Frederick Avenue Gallery and Venus Social Club
DJs: r3algrl and Mowiah
Poster Design: Adeline Jean
Photographer: Jorge Ariel Escobar