SF Pride 2021 Will Be In-Person, But At Small And Distanced Events

Image: zoxcleb via Flickr

The post-Zoom live event era is on the horizon, and SF Pride 2021 may be the among first to host responsibly distanced major annual live events again. SF Pride has scrapped the parade and musician stages for 2021 — as well as the Zoom streaming model — and has instead developed a full month of smaller, alternative in-person events to celebrate SF Pride in 2021 this June.

“Everybody at SF Pride is excited to bring our communities back together again,” SF Pride executive director Fred Lopez tells BrokeAssStuart.com. “But putting on something like we usually do, all the way up until 2019, is just not possible.”

Image: ken watson via Flickr

SF Pride just announced they’re doing three separate, small. and socially distanced events in June. These are as follows:

• Pride Movie Night at Oracle Park- (Fri. – Sat. June 11-12)
• Black Liberation (Tentatively Fri., June 18)
• Pride Expo (Time and Dates TBD)

“After a full year of physical distancing and other restrictions, the Bay Area’s LGBTQ+ communities will once again be able to gather at limited, in- person events while strictly adhering to current safety protocols,” SF Pride says in a release. “#SFPride51 will be the best version of what is possible at this time, prioritizing public health while providing numerous opportunities for LGBTQ+ people and allies to experience visibility, solidarity, and joy.”

Here’s a preview of the three big socially distanced events SF Pride will be putting on in June.

Image: Oracle

PRIDE MOVIE NIGHT AT ORACLE PARK (FRI. – SAT., JUNE 11-12)

Frameline returns at the Giants’ Oracle Park in what the festival’s executive director James Woolley calls “the largest film screenings in our 45-year history.” He adds that “We cannot wait to wow the audience by showing some great films on a jumbotron screen.”

Friday, June 11: In The Heights

Saturday, June 12: Everybody’s Talking About Jamie

Image: Marsha P. Johnson, Netflix

BLACK LIBERATION EVENT WITH AAACC (FRI. JUNE 18th, EVE OF JUNETEENTH, STILL ‘TENTATIVELY SCHEDULED’)

Last year, SF Pride did a Marsha P. Johnson rally in in additition to their 2020 livestream, and they’re doing a similar distanced rally-style event this year. The Black Liberation Event is “Tentatively scheduled for the evening of Friday, June 18 — the eve of Juneteenth” at the African American Art & Culture Complex (762 Fulton St, at Webster St.)

“The African American Art & Culture Complex is proud to partner with San Francisco Pride, as we create space to celebrate and honor the collective freedom of our Black LGBTQIA sisters, brothers and sibs,” say Melonie Green and Melorra Green, Co-Executive Directors of AAACC. “Last year in June, we proudly hosted the Marsha P. Johnson Black Trans Lives Matter Rally in our open-air gallery. It was a beautiful and much-needed beginning! It is our desire that our community embrace all our individual and collective displays of freedom.”

Image: Matt Biddulph via Flickr

PRIDE EXPO (DATES AND LOCATION NOT YET ANNOUNCED)

SF Pride executive director Fred Lopez tells us that this Expo would  be “A modified version of the celebration that would usually take place at Civic Center.” He adds that  “We’re doing it without the stages and music. We’re presenting it more as a resources fair. “

“The venue is still being determined on that,” he says. “We will let everybody know exactly what that looks like when we get there.”

And none of these SF Pride plans should be considered written in stone.

“All of this is contingent on our collaborations with the Department of Public Health and with city officials,” Lopez says. “We of course are flexible, and will make changes on the other side if need be if  things — knock on wood — were to trend in a different direction, we absolutely would make adjustments as necessary.”

But SF Pride is not doing a big, normal parade event for 2021.

“As wonderful as it would be to return to having a giant parade of 300 contingents down Market Street, that’s not possible for this June,” Lopez tells us.

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