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A Rainbow Celebration Venice Pride rolls out new events after two-year hiatus By Bridgette M. Redman fter a two-year pandemic hiatus, Venice Pride is ready to roar back through the city with newer and bigger events on the docket. This year’s events—the fifth Venice Pride which launched in 2016—include the world’s largest flying rainbow flag, a two-day festival, a parade and a global rainbow light installation. Grant Turck, Venice Pride’s executive director, said this year is going to be “a really epic celebration.” Venice Pride 2022 runs from June 3 to 5 with the festival at Windward Plaza, the parade along the Venice Beach Boardwalk and a nightly rainbow light installation that will span miles in the sky. This year, Venice Pride will once again unfurl the United We Pride Flag, created especially for Venice in 2018. “We did it because there were so many different Prides around at the time,” Turck said. “It was kind of an activation to unite the different Prides.” Through some research, they discovered that the largest flying flag up to that time was 1,200 square feet and flown from a flagpole in South Africa. They commissioned someone to make one that was slightly bigger. It was custom made to fly between two flagpoles that are 47 feet apart, 50 feet tall and could accommodate a flag that is 47 by 30 feet. There are longer rainbow flags that have been carried in parades, but the Venice flag is the largest one that can actually fly. In 2018, it flew for one weekend and was then carried in the LA Pride Parade. In 2019, a contingent of people took it to New York City and carried it in the NYC World Pride Parade. This year, the flag is going back up on June 1 and will stay up for the entire month of June. “That should be really cool,” Turck said. “People love taking pictures of it. It’s just this really great backdrop with the
PHOTOS BY CHRIS MORTENSON
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After a two-year hiatus, Venice Pride will take place from June 3 to 5 and will feature a series of exciting events and installations. sea in the background and the palm trees.” The opening event for the weekend will be on Friday, June 3 with the LA premiere of Yvette Mattern’s laser light art installation, Global Rainbow. The installation has appeared in such places as New York, Las Vegas, France, Mexico, Japan and other places. It paints the sky with seven powerful lines of color representing the rainbow color spectrum. The laser lights will
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stretch from Venice to Will Rogers State Beach and be on display every night until 2 a.m. through Sunday, June 5. “It will go from the Hotel Erwin, all the way up the coastline of the beach and then it’ll shoot over Santa Monica and terminate at the hillside just above Will Rogers State Beach,” Turck said. “It’s kind of a cool connection because Will Rogers is historically known as a gay beach in LA.” There will be a viewing party
from 7 to 10 p.m. that will take place on the roof of the Hotel Erwin in Venice. Tickets are available online. The first lighting will take place at 9 p.m. “Once it’s fully dark, it’ll be really dramatic,” Turck said. “I think it’s just going to blow people’s minds when they see these lasers going four or five miles up the coast. We had to get clearance from the FAA to do this.” They’re planning to have a
special celebrity guest light the lasers. The installation—and the opening party—is a benefit to raise money for Project Contrast, a nonprofit amplifying the voices of LGBTQ+ youth and Venice Pride. The next day launches another first—a two-day festival with a 160,000-plus square foot footprint. It’s an expansion from previous years’ block parties. Running June 4 and 5, the ticketed event takes place at Venice Beach Recreation Center at Windward Plaza and will feature a community stage and booths. It will run from noon to 10 p.m. each day. Tickets are $20 per day and are available online. In the main area, there will be performers from noon until 9 p.m. with more than 50 community booths and LGBTQ+ vendors selling everything from T-shirts to crafts. There will also be several food trucks. The main stage in the area will host drag queens, musicians, singers and DJs. The programming for the stage is being organized by a group called Queer Moment. Some of the performers will include Amber Crane, Bettie Bathhouse, Fab the Duo, Luna Lovebad, Posse, Stewart Taylor and Zee Machine. The all-ages area also features an activity section on the north side on the grass. There will be such events as a sound bath, a dance class hosted by the LA Rams cheerleaders, the Rams’ mariachi band, and other age-appropriate family activities. Metal detectors at the gates will help ensure the event is safe. The whole area will be fenced in. Attendees will be carded and those who are 21 and older will be given a wristband that grants access to an adults-only space in the festival where alcohol will be sold and Gaywatch, a popular monthly queer dance party, will take place. There is 80 feet of bar space that is being sponsored by Bacardi Turck said they’re calling it the Beer
