PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia’s LGBTQ Pride celebrations this June will start a day earlier than normal this year. The three-day opening weekend kicks off with a citywide tour on May 31.
“We’re doing our best to widen the embrace of the Gayborhood to include all people and to affirm all people,” said Tyrell Brown, executive director of social services nonprofit GALAEI, which is organizing Pride programming again this year.
The theme this year is “Be You,” and the goal is inclusion. Brown says representation matters, as does being inclusive in a way that prioritizes the most marginalized communities.
“We want people in Philadelphia to have something they can engage with. Starting on Friday the 31st, we’re doing ‘Pride Around the City,” Brown said.
“Our 400-foot Pride flag” — it was 200 feet long last year — “will be carried to strategic places in the city, and that’s an opportunity for anyone to engage and be part of a photo op.”
The weekend continues June 1, with a series of events up and down the Benjamin Franklin Parkway that culminate in the Pride Promenade party at the Franklin Institute. Brown promised glitz and glamor.
“It’s going to be amazing. We have a full line of performers. It’s going to be in the big atrium.”
The weekend rounds out June 2 with the Pride March and procession to the Pride Festival in the Gayborhood, where Philly’s own Sapphira Cristál, RuPaul’s Drag Race season 16 runner up, will be the headliner.
Brown says the festival grounds have been expanded to Pine Street, with more than 200 vendors lined up already.