L.A. Pride festival tickets went on sale today at an advanced sale price of $30 for the June 10 and 11 events.
The tickets, which can be purchased online, are $20 for only the Saturday festival and $20 for only the Sunday festival. All online purchases come with a $3 fee.
The City of West Hollywood is working to facilitate the annual Dyke March on Friday night.
An announcement of the ticket sales from Christopher Street West, which produces the event, said prices will go up in late April when CSW officially announces its talent lineup.
This year’s Pride events will be affected by two things: A radical reduction in size of West Hollywood Park, where the festival is staged each year, and the replacement of the Sunday Pride parade by the Resist protest march.
The park is undergoing to redevelopment over the next few years that will leave some of its space unavailable to CSW. The city is attempting to negotiate with the nearby Pacific Design Center to use its plaza, which was used by Pride last year, and with the Metropolitan Transit Authority to use part of its property on Santa Monica Boulevard near San Vicente.
Perhaps the biggest change is replacing the Pride parade with the Resist march, which is being billed as a human rights march embracing more than just LGBT issues. The march, whose creator is Brian Pendleton, will start on Hollywood Boulevard and Highland and proceed down La Brea Avenue before turning onto Santa Monica Boulevard and entering West Hollywood. It is being held in conjunction with the National Equality March for Unity and Pride in Washington, D.C. More information about it is available at resistmarch.org.
$20 is outrageous, but not as bad as what we faced last year, when we were forced to pay an extra amount to supplement the additional cost of making it a “music festival,” even if one were to attend the festival for something other than music. I’m really starting to like the idea of closing SMB. Yes, the city can handle that for an entire weekend (maybe cancel the Friday evening portion, to not affect commuters as much). If the festival took up blocks of space, bled into the park, and included stages on SMB, it would be great. Also,… Read more »
Why all the fences and such– why isn’t Pride free, and where are the sponsors for this? Are the fences there to prevent conflicts? I’ve never understood the exclusionary element to Pride. It seems bourgeois and smacks of last century. If the city kicked in a million a year, why, we’d be flat broke, in a hundred years! (apologies, Charles Foster Kane). I feel like this year, especially, all our LGBTQ allies/ supporters and queer folk should all rally for the cause gratis. Calling Cher, Elton, Gag, Cyndi, Adele, and on and on. By the way, have you seen the… Read more »
I simply would like to know why our piddling festival costs a minimum of $20 a day to enter (and, last year lost $300K+ for CSW!) when other festivals in SoCal cost next-to-nothing or nothing to attend, and are often better gatherings? Perhaps CSW could explain what makes the situation, and thus the entrance fees, different here in LA? Then, maybe, they will know what they need to pursue to be able to offer truly prideful, and affordable, Pride festival entrance fees to everyone who wants to attend.
At this outrageous price, the CSW needs to explain where the money goes, especially since once “inside” the festival it’s money for this money for that. This is not DISNEYLAND (by any definition). How much goes to cost of the festival, which the City of West Hollywood contributes I believe and how much, if any, goes to non profit Organizations. And what about all the bars and clubs nearby that benefit from the event? Are they contributing ANYTHING ANYMORE? The City of West Hollywood needs to REALLY evaluate this event for something other then the way it helps bars/clubs profit.