Long Beach’s Pride Parade carried on as planned Sunday despite the city’s cancellation of the two-day Long Beach Pride Festival because of problems with required paperwork and inspections.
The parade stepped off at 10 a.m. Sunday at Ocean Boulevard and Lindero Avenue and moved along Ocean Boulevard past the reviewing stand across from Bixby Park to its end at Alamitos Avenue.
Honorary grand marshals included XB Valentine, California Treasurer Fiona Ma, NBC4 anchor Annabella Sedano and Telemundo anchor Enrique Chiabra, along with a record 141 entries.
This year’s theme was “Fearless and Free,” highlighting resilience, authenticity and equality.
City officials also announced a special event from noon to 7 p.m. Sunday at Bixby Park, 130 Cherry Ave., that included live music and a free drag show hosted by Jewels of Long Beach.
Plans were also in place to support bars, restaurant and other businesses as visitors sought alternate options to celebrate Pride Weekend.
“To accommodate those coming into town for that event, Long Beach will add additional transit options to connect downtown locations to the Bixby Park area so that there are many options available to celebrate in Long Beach,” city officials said. “We are especially excited for the Long Beach Pride Parade. This cherished tradition brings joy to residents and visitors alike.”
The city has operated the parade since 2024, taking over from the all-volunteer Long Beach Pride organization, which has continued to operate the Pride Festival.
“What was originally intended as a one-time commitment to support the organization as it reorganized has now continued for a third consecutive year, with the city funding and producing the parade,” according to the city’s official statement. “We are proud to have invested the time, resources and care needed to ensure this beloved event thrives. We look forward to celebrating Pride together and honoring Long Beach’s vibrant LGBTQ+ community, an important part of the city’s identity, culture and overall fabulousness.”
Meanwhile, the fallout and finger-pointing continued following the city’s late Friday cancellation of what would have been the 43rd annual Long Beach Pride Festival with city officials citing a last ditch effort to save the event.
“Although the timeframe had passed to issue permits for the festival as it was originally envisioned by Long Beach Pride, the event organizer, the city continued working [Friday] night and [Saturday] morning to identify possible alternative venue options so that Long Beach Pride could still host a meaningful community gathering this weekend,” officials said.
City Manager Tom Modica told NBC4 Saturday that it appeared festival organizers could not meet even minimal city requirements that would have allowed the festival to move forward.
” We’ve been working the last 24 hours to offer them different opportunities to bring about 3,000 of their guests into the Terrace Theatre and also to do something at Bixby Park on Sunday since we already have that all set up for Pride, but unfortunately I don’t believe they’re able to do those two things,” he said.
The city statement noted that “Mayor Rex Richardson offered to privately fundraise up to $50,000 to support either event. Long Beach Pride chose not to accept these options.”
In his own statement on Facebook, Richardson proclaimed his support “for the organizers, activists, and leaders who helped build Pride into one of the most important celebrations in the country. I know many people are deeply disappointed by the cancellation of the Pride Festival. I am too. We spent countless hours working with organizers and partners to explore every possible pathway forward. But as Mayor, I also have a responsibility to ensure events are safe. That responsibility will always matter.
“The 43rd Annual Long Beach Pride Parade will move forward on Sunday … and I’ve been deeply moved by the way people have come together in the most Long Beach way possible, with local bars, organizers, artists, and small businesses creating spaces for people to celebrate, connect, and feel supported. We will continue working with organizers to ensure Pride remains strong for future generations.”
The ticketed event scheduled for Saturday and Sunday “requires the submission of detailed operational, construction and public safety plans in order to be permitted to ensure safety of the attendees,” Special Events officials said earlier. “Unfortunately … the Long Beach Pride Festival will not be able to take place this year as sufficient information to safely permit the event has not been made available by the event organizers.”
In a statement on the festival’s website, organizers did not directly respond to the permit allegations or the overnight effort to scale down and salvage the event. Instead they cited current challenges facing the LGBTQ+ community and Long Beach’s long history as one of the nation’s best cities for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer inclusion as cited by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Municipal Equality Index.
“At this moment we need leadership, we need inclusion. We need the city to stand for us, not cancel us,” Long Beach Pride President Tonya Martin said. “This time we asked for help again early in the year and it never was given. If they do it to us is to do it to all of us.”
Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Long Beach, who is openly gay and a former mayor of the city, said it was “gut-wrenching” to learn of the festival’s cancellation “on the first day of Pride” while also paying tribute to the “heroic” team of volunteers who founded the event in 1984.
“Much of my coming out experience was motivated by my first festival,” Garcia said in a statement on social media. “It was diverse, welcoming, and I danced the night away with new friends. There are many outstanding questions about the festival that need to be answered, and in time, I fully expect we will get them. But it’s important that Pride in Long Beach continues to be celebrated.
“Pride is more than just a Festival. It’s an incredible parade down Ocean Boulevard, a Dyke March, protests, and countless parties. We should continue to celebrate our Pride by supporting our neighborhood LGBTQ+ bars and local events. We owe it to our community elders to fight on and keep Pride alive.”
Nevertheless, the large number of people who showed up Sunday were determined to make the best of the situation.
“It was really unfortunate that that happened,” Gay For Good Executive Director Anne Friedman told CBS2 about the cancellation. “There’s a lot of outstanding questions but at the end of the day our community is really resilient, and as you’ve seen people have pivoted. They’ve found other ways to show up. We’re still having the run today, we still have the parade today, there’s going to be vendors up and down the street, Bixby Park is going to be filled with the celebration, so Long Beach is super-resilient, as is the entire LGBTQ community, and I think that’s been really evident this weekend.”