Heavy Cream didn’t bring the equipment for a live remote of her podcast but she did bring her red, tropical-print kiki couch to Gainesville’s Pride Festival Saturday and gabbed with her fans while meeting new friends.

Heavy Cream, aka Scott Purcell, is a Gainesville drag queen and host of the podcast “Heavy Cream and 2 Sugars” with sidekick Budd Dees about the local drag scene.

“We talk to local drag queens and get to know them. That’s why we have the kiki couch out — that’s when you spill the tea, which means the truth. Tell me the truth,” said Cream, adorned in an orange and blue dress and purple wig. “I’m a new queen — I’ve been doing drag about a year and a half. I’m trying to learn to do drag so they give me advice. And I’m trying to share that knowledge with everybody else.”

Cream — one of the few drag queens with a beard, which was a glittery purple Saturday — was very cheerful, a mood shared with many others at the festival at downtown’s Bo Diddley Plaza.

Terry Fleming of the Pride Community Center, which stages Gainesville Pride Days, said Saturday’s parade had more participants than usual.

“We had a lot of marchers, more marchers than ever. I think people are excited after a tough week, a tough couple of months, with the hurricane and Richard Spencer and everything else,” Fleming said, referring to the white nationalist who was in town Thursday. “People are excited to get out, have some fun and enjoy themselves.”

Nearly 100 vendors and organizations crowded the plaza selling clothing, food, LGBTQ items and more. Political candidates and parties, Plenty of Pits dog rescue, churches and health groups were among the organizations.

Local Pink Pistols representative Logan Glitterbomb explained the Pink Pistols is a national organization assists LGBTQ people who want to learn about the use of guns for self-defense, including obtaining concealed weapons permits.

“We train each other how to own and operate firearms. There is definitely a lot interest in it,” Glitterbomb said. “In the queer community, people are regularly attacked — trans women are murdered every year for who they are. Our Orlando branch grew tremendously after Pulse (nightclub attack.)”

Gainesville’s first Pride festival was in 1992, Fleming said. The first parade was about a decade later.

The parade and festival is one of the few LGBTQ events in the region so it draws visitors from a wide circle.

“We get folks from Lake City and Ocala. We get folks from as far away as Jacksonville and Tampa,” Fleming said. “We’re real excited about it.”