LONG BEACH, Calif. — After two years of COVID-impacted cancellations, Long Beach Pride will be back at the shoreline this year.
What You Need To Know
- Long Beach Pride is a nonprofit that produces the annual three-day festival in July
- This year's event will take place July 9-10 and will kick off with a free Teen Pride celebration on July 8
- Iggy Azalea is one of the headliners this year
- The event's relaxed atmosphere and diversity are two components that distinguish Long Beach's celebration from other Pride events, says the nonprofit's president
Dating back to 1984, Long Beach Pride is the third-largest Pride festival and parade in California and celebrates the LGBTQ+ community with a focus on inclusion, as the nonprofit's president explained.
“It is definitely a diverse group that comes to our festival," said Elsa Martinez while detailing the components that distinguish Long Beach's event from others.
It's also a more relaxed atmosphere, she added, “maybe because we’re by the ocean.”
The two-day waterfront festival — with musical headliners including Iggy Azalea and Natalia Jiménez — will run July 9 and 10, offering live music, community programming, sponsor activations, plus food and drinks from local area eateries. The annual parade takes place on that Sunday, with Teen Pride kicking things off on the evening of Friday, July 8.
This year's celebration — described by Martinez as the "biggest" one yet — will feature new open-air "domes" to host a drag make-up station, a silent disco (a first for Long Beach Pride) and a new pop-up museum.
"In addition to the stages and musical entertainment, we will be creating activations and attractions that will entertain, educate and inspire our audience," Martinez said.
It's a highly anticipated return, especially since Long Beach Pride's in-person festivities were canceled the past two years due to the pandemic. The nonprofit took a monetary hit in 2020, as Martinez explained, because the weekend event had been shut down after all the planning was done.
The organization learned to pivot, however, as Martinez and her team launched Facebook Live during the pandemic to stay in touch with the community.
The upcoming event is held in July instead of June (Pride Month) to give the nonprofit a bit more time to ensure the festivities are properly planned out and executed.
For additional information on Long Beach Pride, please visit here.
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