The COVID-19 global pandemic may have canceled the parades, but the celebrations will continue.
LGBTIQ+ pride festivals around the world are bringing the party, the advocacy and the community right into your home. The most ambitious of them all is a live 24-hour global streaming event hosted by Global Pride and will feature content from around the world.
Global Pride’s website and YouTube channel will livestream the event on June 27. Organizers expect to attract up to 300 million viewers with more than 1,500 pride organizations taking part.
“Pride events may be canceled but the spirit of Pride will live on,” says Global Pride organizers via a press release.
Global Pride will include appearances from artists like The Chicks, Ava Max, Oliva Newton John, Pabllo Vittar, Bright Light Bright Light and more. Political leaders such as Costa Rican President Carlos Alvarado Quesada, whose country recently legalized same-sex marriage, is slated to speak along with a host of LGBTIQ+ activists.
“We’ve harnessed the power of the internet to deal with isolation as queer people when we thought we were the only one. The internet’s been a lifeline for people who thought they were alone to find information, connection and community,” Cathy Renna, communications director for the National LGBTQ Task Force, told the Washington Post in May.
This won’t be the only virtual party going on. Quite a few pride organizations are putting together their own, smaller virtual celebrations.
Among them is NYC Pride, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary by hosting a two-hour (noon - 2pm) event on June 28 and air on WABC Channel 7 (in New York) and livestream on the channel’s website.
NYC Pride and GLAAD is teaming up with Marti Gould Cummings and The Only Productions to host the three-day virtual “Pride 2020 Drag Fest” which will feature more than 100 performers. The event will livestream on the NYC Pride and GLAAD Facebook pages.
