If you’re gay or just supportive of gay rights and culture, this is one of the best weekends of the year to make the two-hour drive from Los Angeles to Palm Springs.
Pride Week will close out this weekend in downtown Palm Springs with the 30th annual Palm Springs Pride Festival, offering music, dancing and more, as well as Sunday’s massive Pride Parade, which will take over the city’s main roadway, Palm Canyon Drive.
Entertainment Saturday includes a plethora of free musical performances on two stages at Arenas Road and Tahquitz Canyon Way.
The festival will conclude Sunday with the Pride Parade, expected to draw thousands to watch floats, rainbow flags and glitter rain down Palm Canyon Drive.
Parade participants will again be expected to include major government officials, business representatives, gay pride organizations and cars and officers from the Palm Springs Police Department and Riverside Sheriff’s office.
The crowd gathers early for the parade as many people pick out prime curbside spots for beach chairs and blankets. In the center of town the crowd is so great that people vie for views two or three persons back from the street.
Some parade floats take on a more serious view of LGBT issues, but many verge on the outlandish. The parade, however, is family friendly and numerous children are in the crowd each year.
— City News Service