When your community is famed for not only embracing diversity but regularly celebrating it, you tend to see several positive results grow from that spirit.
Take Long Beach. It regularly makes top-10 lists spotlighting our country's most gay-friendly cities and neighborhoods, which means that a lot of people in other places put the LBC on their travel itineraries. And those visitors quite often schedule that visit for the middle of May.
Why? The city has one of the most successful and large-scale pride festivals in all the land, a party that has served as a template for other festivals elsewhere for three decades now. And when we say "large-scale" we mean this: Over 75,000 attendees visit the festival over its two-day span. It's thriving, robust, and very bustling.
Oh, did we say three decades there? Indeed we did. Long Beach Lesbian & Gay Pride Festival turns 30 this year, and its big birthday will be full of festive moments, concerts, comedy, and, yep, that famous parade. The dates? Saturday, May 18 and Sunday, May 19.
Fantasia, Diana King, Madame Dee, and Jill Warren are four of the headliners set for the main stage, but there are several areas for dancing, including stages devoted to urban soul and country tunes. Look for the entertainment to flow over both days.
The parade is on Sunday, May 19 at 10:30 a.m. If you're on Ocean Boulevard between Lindero and Alamitos, you're in the right spot for spectating.
Happy 30th, Long Beach Pride! Cheers to setting the standard for other municipal pride parties that seek to be as big in breadth and big of heart as you.
