The theme of this year’s OC Pride Festival on Saturday is “Revolutionary,” organizers said, emphasizing the importance of being yourself at a time when hostility toward the LGBTQIA+ community continues to rise.
“It’s a celebration of our community’s resilience and a call for unity. It really captures the moment when joy itself is an act of courage,” Manny Muro, vice president of OC Pride, said on the eve of this year’s celebration at the OC Fair & Event Center in Costa Mesa.
The movement has come a long way since Orange County’s first pride festival was held in 1989, at Centennial Park in Santa Ana. Police got involved, and park gates were shut after attendees faced hostility from anti-LGBT protesters who picketed. But the community persevered, and the celebration was held for years in Santa Ana until it moved to the county fairgrounds last October.
The festival has something for everyone this year, including a new family camp area where parents and kids can play games and earn merit badges and a new sober space serving nonalcoholic refreshers.
At 11 a.m. the Blaze It Forward Parade — named in honor of Blaze Bernstein, a 19-year-old college student killed in 2018 — kicks off the day with a loop in front of the fairgrounds and inside, there will be a marketplace, drag shows and live music featuring several Latin artists and performers.
There will also be a dedicated space for trans and non-binary community members, as well LGBTQIA+ youth and allies.
Attendees will have an opportunity to connect with local pride organizations from across Orange County in the Pride City segment. Organizers said they wanted to create a space for these groups to come together and celebrate the great work they’re doing around the county. Some cities represented included booths from Mission Viejo, Laguna Beach and Huntington Beach.
“The Orange County community is always showing up for each other. We see people from Anaheim to San Clemente, from our beach towns to our inland cities. We really bring neighbors, families, local and small businesses together,” Muro said. “It’s really a local, homegrown festival.”
If you go
- When: The parade starts at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 27, with the festival from noon to 10 p.m.
- Where: OC Fair & Event Center, 88 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa
- Cost: General admission is $20; those 15 and under and 65 and older get in free
- Information: prideoc.com