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Rockwood Pride - Inaugural Celebration

Celebrating the LGBTQIA+ community and Queer Rockwood

Grab a blanket and head to the South Lawn for this FREE event, where you can enjoy craft and artisan vendors, delicious foods, live music and performers. Don your rainbows, raise your flags and experience a unique tour that discusses Queerness and the Victorian families who lived in the mansion.

During your visit, explore the grounds with self-guided park tours and scavenger hunts or head inside with FREE admission to Queer Rockwood Museum Tour. 

Be sure to capture all the fun throughout the day with photo booths and selfie stations!

All ages are welcome and furry friends (outdoors) are, too!

Sat | 3-7 p.m. | 6/22

Pictured: Mary Bringhurst (1865-1965), Edward V. Bringhurst (1884-1939) and Joseph Shipley (1795-1867)

Special thanks to our event partner Nuestras Raices Delaware.

Things To Enjoy and To Do

The Official Pride DJ

Enjoy the musical selections of DJ Raven De La Noir, the “queer femme disk jockey of Pennsylvania” specializing in House, Liquid DnB, Techno, and Goth music and a regular at Nocturnal in Harrisburg.

Acoustic Musician

Christina O’Brien, a.k.a. Love Notes No Boundaries, music therapist and performer of West Chester, PA

Entertainment Schedule

• 3-4 p.m.: DJ Raven De La Noir
• 4-5 p.m.: Acoustic by Christina O’Brien, aka Love Notes No Boundaries
• 5-5:20 p.m.: Drag Performers
• 5:20-5:40 p.m.: Open Mic/DJ Raven De La Noir
• 5:40-6 p.m.: Drag Performers 
• 6-7 p.m.: DJ Raven De La Noir

Retailers and Artisan Vendors

• Design Hues - fiber art, ceramics, jewelry
• Designs by Daria - t-shirts, tumblers
• Finley’s Flowers - floral art, jewelry
• Hazelnut Woods - wooden and holiday decorations
• Iris & Callisto's Apiary - local honey
• Jill Daisy Crochet - fiber art
• Kashaol Art - art, stickers, buttons
• The Lonely Art - tie-dye
• Megan's Creations - bags, puppy scarves
• Rainbow Creative Arts - fiber art
• Shrine Candle Company - candles, macrame
• WhelpyArt - visual art prints, acrylic charms

Food Vendors

• Humpty Dumplings
• Martin Concessions, LLC

Queer Rockwood Tour

Pride Month-inspired exhibition of Queer figures at Rockwood for the month of June, FREE with admission

Several Queer figures, people who lived outside traditional ideas about gender and sexuality, added to Rockwood’s greatness from the 1850s to the 1970s. This specialty tour offered through the month of June will highlight their stories and artistic, cultural and aesthetic pursuits and is the feature attraction of Rockwood Pride.

See examples of historic clothing, fine art photography, antiques, and personal stories of Rockwood’s queer luminaries. During the Pride Celebration, the tour will be detailed with selfie stations, campy cut-outs of Rockwood’s historic past, and picturesque park vistas.

Thu-Sat, 10-4 p.m., Sun, 12-4 p.m. | through June

Old-Fashioned Ice Cream Festival at Rockwood Park

This quintessential summer festival features lots of ice cream, live local music, kids' activities, entertainment, a marketplace, fantastic food and a beer and wine garden, museum tours, fireworks and much more. $5, free for kids 12 and under, with adult admission. All ages.

Sat | 1-9 p.m. | 6/29; rain date 6/30

FREE parking and shuttle at Rockwood Office Park, 501 Carr Rd., Wilmington

Nature of Gothic: A Contemporary Art Exhibition at Rockwood

Nature of Gothic is a site-specific contemporary art exhibition, curated by Past Present Projects, of the art work of Leo Tecosky (Brooklyn) and Samara Weaver (Wilmington) inside the historic galleries at Rockwood Park & Museum. Drawing inspiration from the appearance of the mansion and its museum collections, the artists created original sculptures in glass and clay that respond to this site’s relationship to the natural (and un-natural) world, the symbolism of the Gothic Revival style, and the identities of the people who inhabited this space through time. Past Present Projects, based in Philadelphia, juxtaposes the work of living artists within historic sites to increase appreciation and understanding of both.

Historic house museums are notoriously inaccessible, but Rockwood will furnish, upon request, wheelchair accessible ramps into the Nature of Gothic exhibition galleries on the museum’s first floor.

Included with admission to Rockwood Museum. All ages.

Mon-Sat 10 a.m.-4 p.m. | Sun 12-4 p.m. | 7/13-11/10 

The Nature of Gothic exhibition is supported, in part, by a grant from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts. The Division promotes Delaware arts events on DelawareScene.com.

Delaware Shakespeare Summer Festival: Julius Caesar

Fearing the tyrannical reign of Julius Caesar, a passionate group of senators – lead by Cassius and Brutus – debate, plot and execute a momentous assassination. This bold interpretation of a classic, performed by a gender-expansive cast, explores the emotional and societal chaos preceding and following Caesar’s murder. Can there be a balance between violence and vengeance? Does blood need to be shed in the name of justice? Admission varies. All ages.

Tickets for Julius Caesar are available starting June 1 through Delaware Shakespeare.

7/19 (Opening Night), 7/20, 7/21, 7/24-28, 7/30 (rain date), 7/31, 8/1, 8/2, 8/3, 8/4

Rockwood Park Preservation Society

Help preserve the natural beauty and historical integrity of Rockwood. Become a member of the Rockwood Park Preservation Society today.

The Benefits of Membership

A membership to Art-Reach or the Rockwood Park Preservation Society will grant you great benefits including discounts for tours and select programs.

Use the “Art-Reach2024” and “RPPS2024” coupon codes at checkout to unlock the membership discount. Proof of membership must be presented at the time of the tour.

• RPPS Membership
• Art-Reach Membership

Visit Rockwood for FREE by Getting a Museum Pass with Your Delaware Library Card

Your FREE entry to art, culture, entertainment and so much more. Get a pass today. Note: Patrons must have their library card available when reserving a pass. 

Learn More

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