March 28, 2024 The Newspaper Serving LGBT Los Angeles

Move LA Pride Festival to Santa Monica Boulevard

BY TROY MASTERS  |  Christopher Street West faces too many logistical nightmares in producing the three day Festival portion of LA Pride, issues that are jeopardizing the event and rankling critics, music festival or not.

Organizers are tasked with cramming a mega event (for which it charges) into an ever shrinking micro space.

It’s time end the headache. An obvious model already exists and West Hollywood needs to adopt it. It’s called Halloween.  

Pride should become a free and open event funded by the City of West Hollywood entirely and it should be modeled in some respects after Halloween, particularly the Festival portion.

Forget about the ever changing available landscape of West Hollywood Park. It’s out of commission for at least 3 years. Forget about fashioning slap-dash solutions that please no one. Forget about stretching the footprint of the festival from Santa Monica Boulevard to Melrose. Forget about squeezing hundreds of thousands of people into a 40 foot wide coral.

Forget about crafting solutions based on the need to contain people for the purpose of making money.

Open it up. Make it free and accessible.

Closing Santa Monica Boulevard from La Cienega to San Vicente or Robertson gives Festival planners several areas for large stages, multiple activities areas and well designed vendor spaces with ample room for food and special recreation activities.  It allows hundreds of thousands of people the ability to roam freely and for at least one major star studded event to happen with ease.

Since this year’s event will likely conclude on Sunday with a super-sized march, the Festival could be limited to 2 days in scope and the event on the final day could be devoted to a rally as marchers end up at San Vicente.

It’s time to put an end to the madness. Open it up.

This year’s parade will be a protest parade and it will likely draw the largest crowd the City has ever seen. Change is required.

Pride produces a greater amount of revenue for the City of West Hollywood than any other event.  The City can afford to devote its full attention to this event, especially this year. 

Providing it with an optimal presence and a larger footprint than ever will produce a world class and highly profitable event.

Typical street closures for the Halloween parade are as follows:

Main Closures:

  • San Vicente Boulevard between Santa Monica Boulevard and Melrose Avenue from 12:00 a.m. midnight on days of event.
  • Santa Monica Boulevard between North Doheny Drive and La Cienega from 12:00 p.m. on days of events.

Additional Closures:

  • All alleyways between Santa Monica Boulevard and Melrose Avenue
  • Robertson Boulevard between Santa Monica Boulevard and Melrose Avenue
  • Almont Drive between Santa Monica Boulevard and Melrose Avenue
  • La Peer Drive between Santa Monica Boulevard and Melrose Avenue
  • San Vicente Boulevard between Santa Monica Boulevard and Cynthia Street
  • La Cienega Boulevard between Holloway Drive and Melrose Avenue
  • Sunset Boulevard eastbound/westbound turn lanes onto southbound La Cienega Boulevard
Related Posts

COLUMN: How to Safely Prep to Bottom

August 22, 2019

August 22, 2019

By Dr. Evan Goldstein, founder of Future Method When it comes to sex, the majority of gay men don’t have access...

HEALTH FEATURE: Helping Vaccine Sensitive Patients at Ananda Integrative Medicine

July 31, 2019

July 31, 2019

Vaccinating children who’ve had adverse reactions to shots.  By Sam Catanzaro  While kids are still in summer mode, parents have...

HEALTH FEATURE: The Link Between Hearing Loss and Dementia

July 31, 2019

July 31, 2019

Dr. Melissa Alexander helping patients minimize effects of hearing loss The ability to hear can have a significant impact on...

FEATURE: The Best Places to Buy Furniture in LA This Summer

June 24, 2019

June 24, 2019

By Brittany Brodeur Summer can be an amazing time to remodel your home!  However, we’re sure you’ll agree that designing...

FEATURE: Grow Pod Solutions Revolutionizing Local Agriculture

June 24, 2019

June 24, 2019

It seems that every day, we read about a new food-borne illness or hear about the latest recall of tainted...

BUSINESS FEATURE: Theatre for All at P3 Theatre Company

May 17, 2019

May 17, 2019

Progressive theatre for the entire community Long Beach has many quality venues for theatre, but one local theatre company not...

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR: Why Have LGBTQ+ Pride Events?

May 17, 2019

May 17, 2019

Living in a hyper-liberal bubble like Long Beach, or the entirety of California for that matter, often creates an illusion...

HEALTH FEATURE: Hearing Aid Technology at Alexander Audiology

May 2, 2019

May 2, 2019

Hearing aids in the 21st century with Dr. Melissa Alexander Hearing aids have come leaps and bounds just within the...

The Future of E-Learning

April 14, 2019

April 14, 2019

By Nektar Baziotis Distance learning is as old as the 18th century when teachers would send their students weekly lessons...

GAY LA: When Lesbian Visibility Was an L.A. Specialty

April 9, 2019

April 9, 2019

In 2017, West Hollywood’s Plummer Park hosted an exhibit titled Lesbians to Watch Out For: ’90s Queer L.A. Activism. On...

DEAR AIDAN: Date and Dining Etiquette

January 26, 2019

January 26, 2019

Dear Aidan, How does one go about splitting the bill when it comes to dating? Dear Bill Splitter, There are...

DEAR AIDAN: My Boyfriend Has a Secret Girlfriend?

December 22, 2018

December 22, 2018

Q: Hi Aidan! I started seeing a guy casually over the past two months and things are starting to get...

COLUMN: Gay L.A. – Decades Later, Matthew Shepard Lives On in the Heart of the LGBTQ+ Community

October 14, 2018

October 14, 2018

The hate crime that got the world talking about tragic queer lives and deaths turns 20 this year. The late...

Joe Biden: A True Champion of LGBT Rights

June 13, 2017

June 13, 2017 182

Appreciating the fierce ally we had in our last Vice President

LGBTQ Seniors Continue to Fight for Visibility

May 10, 2017

May 10, 2017 821

We have to take better care of our seniors