With less than four months to go until Pride Sunday, NYC Pride has introduced its lineup of events leading up to the Pride March in New York City — including PrideFest and Youth Pride.
The lineup of events begins well before Pride Month, with networking happy hours and bar crawls beginning in March, but many of the most prominent events will take place during the final weekend of June.
On March 18, NYC Pride is hosting a networking happy hour event called NetWERK! The event will be held from 5-8 p.m. at VERS, where attendees can connec with LGBTQ professionals and learn more about Pride programing. The event is $10 and includes light bites and activities. VERS is located at 714 9th Ave. Register via Eventbrite.
On March 19, NYC Pride is hosting an open house as part of a free monthly gathering held at the organization’s office at 145 Christopher St., Suite 2A. The March open house, which also features a queer vendor market, will take place from 6-9 p.m. Attendees will have the opportunity to learn about what it takes to get involved as a volunteer at NYC Pride. There will be resfreshments and light bites. RSVP via Eventbrite.
NYC Pride’s “Road to Pride” bar crawl series will be held three times, begining on March 28 at 2 p.m. with the Y2K Crawl in Hell’s Kitchen, where stops will include VERS, The Red Stache, and Industry. The next crawl will be the Disco Crawl from 2-5 p.m. on May 9 in Williamsburg. The bars involved in that crawl will be Oberon, Exley, and Animal. The final crawl will be on June 6 from 2-5 p.m. at Duplex, Julius’, and Pieces in the West Village. Learn more about each of those crawls and register at nycpride.org.
On Saturday, June 27 — the day before the NYC Pride March — Youth Pride will take place at noon at South Street Seaport Museum at Pier 16 and The Seaport at Pier 17. The block party-style event offers community resources, queer-affirming support, carnival games, musical performances, free food, snacks, and more options in a safe space for LGBTQ youth and their families and allies.
On Pride Sunday, June 28, the festivities begin at 11 a.m. with PrideFest, which takes place at Fourth Avenue from 14th Street to Eighth Street/Astor Place. Vendors of all kinds join the free street fair, which begins before the actual march steps off.
An hour later, at noon, New Yorkers will begin the annual NYC Pride March, which will start at 26th Street and Fifth Avenue and disperse at 15th Street and Seventh Avenue. The NYC Pride March is one of two main marches on Pride Sunday in New York City, along with the Reclaim Pride Coalition’s Queer Liberation March.
Notably, however, there are also many Pride-related events throughout the month of June that are not associated with NYC Pride. Queens Pride, which is usually the first borough-based Pride event of the month, is scheduled for June 7, while Brooklyn Pride will take place on June 13. The NYC Drag March typically takes place on the Friday of Pride weekend, while the NYC Dyke March is scheduled for June 27.
Learn more about NYC Pride events at nycpride.org/events.
