(P)ride or Die — Our Ode to a Gay Ol’ Time
🌈 Subscribe to our newsletter☕️
It’s officially Pride season, and we are filling up our calendar with as many festivals as humanly possible. While we’re compiling our list, we decided to reflect back on the Prides we’ve attended, provide some insider tips, and talk about our Pride festival wishlist.
Prides We’ve Attended
San Francisco
June 29–30, 2019
As Bay Area residents for nearly a decade, we attended the SF Pride Fest pretty much every year. It is the pinnacle of our Pride experience and truly shuts the city down. Ground zero for the pride festivities, besides the parade on Sunday, is Mission Dolores Park on Saturday. Smack dab in the middle of the Mission District, and atop a giant green hill — LGBTQIA+ folks from every walk of life descend on this spot, layout a blanket or two, attempt to keep their alcohol chilled and keep track of their friends.
Dolores park was always our favorite part of the festival because a day in the park with friends is both low-stress, but also economically tenable for pretty much every one of our nearest and dearest. Other (but most likely not all) highlights:
- Dyke March
- Pride Parade
- Trans March
- Mighty Real Pride Poolside Party
- Lots of Events in the Castro + Beyond
If you’re planning on attending any of the evening events, make sure you get your tickets early, as the parties do sell out in advance.
Oakland
September 8th, 2019
We were East Bay (Oakland, Berkeley area) residents the entire time we lived in the Bay Area, and we attended the Oakland Pride parade & festival several times.
The Parade
It’s definitely a lot more toned down in comparison to the SF pride parade — complete with lots of lesbian moms walking with their partners, kids, and dogs — which is obviously adorable. One thing that many people might not know is that Oakland is sort of a Mecca for Queer women. The best example that we can give is that from 2015–2018, with the closing of the Lexington Club (aka the Lex), San Francisco didn’t have a Lesbian bar.
Quick note: As of 2019, a new lesbian bar named Jolene’s opened up! This is excellent news y’all.
This phenomenon coincided and was precipitated by the tech boom in SF that drove up rents/housing prices and pushed more and more people (especially queer women) into Oakland. Also, the East Bay is topographically and culturally more set up for a laid back, family-friendly lifestyle.
The Festival
Although there’s no fee to watch the parade, there is a fee to get into the festival ($10 for an adult, and $5 for children under 12).
October 11–13, 2019
Atlanta pride is where we first heard the phrase “y’all means all” and that’s basically a perfect encapsulation of the festival. Situated fairly deep in the south, we had some reservations about feeling comfortable celebrating pride out in the open. But, Atlanta is an extremely welcoming and diverse community and is basically the gay capital of the south.
The epicenter of Atlanta pride festival is Piedmont Park. Similar to SF pride, people have groups that they’ve been going to park with for years, and have a system down. We were lucky enough to go with some seasoned friends with not one, but three easy-up tents — which seriously helps when you’re drinking all day in the sun. We immediately felt an overwhelming sense of community, southern hospitality, and made at least five new friends over the course of the weekend.
Get your GayBae or Pride or Die tank here!
The other special part about Atlanta is they have their own Lesbian bar — which is unfortunately a dying trend. MSR (My Sister’s Room) has been open for 20+ years, is lesbian-owned, and is renowned as one of the most famous Lesbian bars in both the South and entire U.S. MSR is welcoming to the entire LGBTQIA+ community at large, and is so popular that they recently moved to a new location with two full levels of dance floor. In our opinion, Southern gay nightlife rivals any club or bar we’ve been to in the Bay Area — with the added benefit of cheaper drinks, a more diverse crowd, and warmer weather.
July 12th — 14th, 2019
Especially for lesbians, San Diego Pride is a great event because the city boasts a lesbian bar/club called Gossip Grill that’s right in Hillcrest, San Diego’s gayborhood. If you’re familiar with the ongoing disappearance of the lesbian bar, you’ll understand how special it is to be able to celebrate Pride in a space already built for women, and Gossip Grill knocks it out of the park. Part club/part restaurant/part bar, Gossip Grill, which is also on a drag with other gay bars, has everything you’ll need to spend an amazing day soaking up the festivities. Be forewarned though, the lines will get massive during Pride weekend, and once they hit capacity, the rule is one in-one out, so you’ll end up waiting longer.
Our recommendations: Get a VIP ticket to Gossip Grill that allows you to skip the line if you know you’ll be spending a lot of time there, or make sure you get there early and be willing to stay.
Along with typically beautiful weather for the weekend, there’s a festival, a parade, and a ton of people who come out to celebrate.
Venice, Italy
We’ve only been once, but we wanted to give a shoutout to a Pride we unsuspectingly stumbled upon a few years ago in Venice, Italy. Venice Pride was objectively smaller than any other Pride we’ve attended, but the rainbow flags juxtaposed with the beautiful scenery and changing cultural attitudes was something we’ll never forget.
Sadly, we couldn’t find any information online that the parade will be happening this year, which is a darn shame. If you have any information regarding it, please feel free to reach out to us, and we’ll be sure to update this article!
Pride Wish List
- Toronto Pride — With all of the great LGBTQ+ television coming out of Canada, we’d love the chance to visit Toronto Pride. A beautiful city + a socially progressive society = a damn good time in our books.
- Austin Pride — While we’re biased on this one because we have a few great friends who live in Austin, it’s one of the top Prides on our list to attend in the near future.
- Pensacola Pride — We have friends who attend Pensacola Pride each year, a significant contingent of lesbians from the Southern states consistently flocking to the coast to celebrate. Chilling on the beach during the day and attending the bar parties in the evening sounds like a great way to spend a long Memorial Day weekend!
Share Your PRIDE with GayBaeCo
As a way to celebrate and show your Pride this season, we’re offering 10% off all GayBaeCo merch to rep while you’re out pushing the gay agenda. You can click this link or enter PRIDE in the promo code field at checkout to take advantage!
