PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — June is LGBTQ Pride Month, and community organizers are starting it off with a bang.
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This weekend’s Philadelphia Pride March and Festival is one of the city’s largest outdoor festivals. For the second time in a row, Galaei, a nonprofit serving queer, trans, Black, Indigenous, and people of color communities, is leading the coordination of the festival — this year, under the banner of Pride 365.
“I want to start growing this so we celebrate 365 days a year,” said Tyrell Brown, Galaei’s executive director. Brown co-organized last year’s festivities and said this year, Pride is back and bigger than ever.
“Each and every staff member here has put their foot in this,” said Brown, who adds GALAEI has whipped up a lot for the festival.
“I think this year we wanted to really lift up the intention around Pride being more of a resource festival, not just a celebration of the streets, but celebrating our advocacy and celebrating ourselves authentically by making sure that tangible resources were there,” Brown said.
The fun begins Sunday, June 4 at 10:30 a.m. with the Pride March starting at 6th and Walnut streets, followed by the festival in Center City's Gayborhood from noon until 7 p.m. This year, the festival is on six stages, with something special.
“We have a 200-foot Pride flag that will be in the march,” Brown said, “so it’s possibly the biggest Pride flag in Philadelphia history that will be in the march.”
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On the main stage, Brown said, “SWAY Philly will be there revving the crowd up. We have BOS Philly that will be there. We have two performers from ‘Moulin Rouge’ that’s here in town that will open that stage as well, around 12:45.”
Brown mentioned some additions to the festival, such as “Bailar y Amor” (To Dance with Love) section, an ode to Afro-Latino music and dance that pays tribute to Galaei’s roots in the Latino LGBTQ community.
“Our Latinx initiative and youth and family is back, bigger than ever [with] icon Ebony Fierce, our fabulous SPLAT program manager, in conjunction with Big Brothers Big Sisters, the William Way [LGBT Community Center], Attic Youth Center and so many others,” said Brown.
One thing that stands out to Brown this year is getting resources directly to people, “like caseworkers that will be there to assist with things that are tangible,” such as housing and health care.
Brown said evolution was in mind during the planning of the event, and that it was a community effort.
“Everybody is involved in a way that I haven’t seen before,” said Brown. “It’s like really making sure people understand that we have a strong vibrant community here and how these things evolve. Each year, Pride is not going to be the same and people need to get used to that idea.”
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