Third Eye Blind Headlines 35th Annual Palm Springs Pride Festival
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hird Eye Blind, Jody Watley, A Flock of Seagulls, The Robyn Party, Shannon, and Jeanie Tracy top the 35th annual Greater Palm Springs Pride Festival taking place next month.
The Festival will celebrate and embrace the region’s diverse LGBTQ community as part of Pride week November 1-7 in downtown Palm Springs on Arenas Rd. and Palm Canyon Drive. The annual worldwide Pride theme is You Are Included.
Alternative rock band Third Eye Blind headlines the Festival and sets the stage for an unprecedented and diverse group of LGBTQ and allied performers in the Palm Springs Pride lineup. Third Eye Blind will play a 60-minute set Saturday, Nov 6. The Festival will be free (with a suggested donation) and include 70 pop, drag, rock’ n’ roll, country, and Broadway-style performances over three days.
The Festival will occur in outdoor venues and include three days of dancing in the streets on Arenas Rd between Indian Canyon and Calle Encilia. On Palm Canyon Drive, the Festival will be between Amado and Tahquitz and the surrounding area of the new City Park (Museum Way and Belardo Rd). There will be open-air beverage lounges, food vendors, a festival marketplace, T-Mobile Youth Zone, and a Children’s Garden for the kids.
Festival highlights include the Art of Pride with LGBTQ artists, free health resources, including COVID-19 testing, vaccinations, and HIV testing sites.
Additionally, Greater Palm Springs Pride announced the recipients of its 2021 Palm Springs Pride Honors Awards last month. The prestigious awards honor individuals for their work advancing the causes of LGBTQ individuals and their allies.
Leather culture legend Race Bannon is the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award. Race has elevated awareness of the leather community’s contributions toward LGBTQ liberation for nearly 50 years. As a writer and activist, he has ensured the broader progressive community discourse includes leather, kink, and BDSM.
Other honorees include: entrepreneur and sought-after chef Betty C. Berrysmith, artist, feminist, and groundbreaker Nancy Worthington, artist Keisha D, public relations guru Jim Hollenbeck and socially–minded business owner Cliff Young.
“After the stress, uncertainty, and isolation of the pandemic, this is a significant time for our community to come together. Pride will be a coming-out celebration of our beautiful community, an opportunity to honor those we have lost and give a voice to the power of self-expression, inclusiveness, and love,” said Ron deHarte, President and CEO of Greater Palm Springs Pride. “We celebrate and use the Pride platform to resist hate, intolerance, racism, and bigotry. Together we affirm our fight for immigration reform, access to health care, and trans rights.”
Palm Springs Pride Festival 2021 takes place on Saturday, Nov. 6 and Sunday, Nov. 7. The Pride Festival includes a street fair, a music festival, an exhibitor marketplace and more. For more info visit: apps.pspride.org
