PAWTUCKET — On the face of it, there was nothing irregular about Rhode Island Pagan Pride’s plans for a Sept. 22 autumnal equinox festival in Slater Memorial Park.

There would be opportunities for pagans of all persuasions, including Wiccans, shamans and druids, to practice their religion.

There would be an observance of the autumnal equinox, during which a priestess would call forth the spirits of the four elements and give thanks to Mother Earth.

There would be workshops on drumming, creating sacred gardens, chant and healing with sound.

There would be a KidWitch Academy, at which children could make dream catchers and wands

But something in the organization’s rules gave City Councilor Henry S. Kinch Jr. pause.

It was the statement that there would be “no nudity or inappropriate exhibitionism” during the festival.

If a rule like that is necessary, then nudity or inappropriate exhibitionism must be a problem, Kinch said.

Before he voted with other City Council members to grant Rhode Island Pagan Pride an entertainment license, Kinch wanted an assurance that no one at the festival would take off his clothes.

“This is America. You can do what you want,” he told two representatives of the organization at yesterday’s City Council meeting.

But, as the City Councilor from the area, Kinch said, he didn’t want to get angry phone calls on the day of the festival. He wanted an assurance that the event wouldn’t feature anything wild.

Another City Council member, Thomas E. Hodge, said that Slater Park is a family-oriented place.

Hodge said music during the festival shouldn’t be offensive. City Councilor Paul J. Wildenhain was blunter, saying that pagans could have their festival, as long as they didn’t sacrifice a goat.

The Pagan Pride representatives who attended yesterday’s City Council meeting were James Latham, a real estate agent from Pawtucket, and Cat Tyrson, a poet and percussionist from West Greenwich.

Neither Latham nor Tyrson responded to Wildenhain’s invocation of the animal sacrifice stereotype.

But both promised the festival wouldn’t feature offensive music or public nudity.

Latham said the music would be soft and balladic. Tyrson said the “no-nudity” rule was included to address a common preconception about pagans.

“The stereotypical comment that is heard from just about everybody is, ‘Oh, aren’t you the people who dance naked in the forest?’ ” he said after the City Council voted to grant Pagan Pride the entertainment license.

Pagans don’t dance naked in the forest, Tyrson said. They do, he said, sometimes dance naked indoors.

But nothing like that will happen at the Pagan Pride festival, the theme of which is “the pagan next door,” Tyrson said.

The festival will have workshops to dispel negative stereotypes about paganism, Lorna Steele, coordinator of Rhode Island Pagan Pride, said in an e-mail to Parks Supt. Bill Mulholland.

“Pagans practice religions that focus on earth-based spirituality,” Steele said in the e-mail.

Tyrson said that’s the reason that the festival, which was held at the First Unitarian Church in Providence last year, is moving outdoors.

jcastell@projo.com