COVER STORY

A Rainbow Celebration

Venice Pride rolls out new events after two-year hiatus

By Bridgette M. Redman

After 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 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.

PHOTOS BY CHRIS MORTENSON

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 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 Irwin, 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 Irwin 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 $10 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 and Bailey’s Irish Cream. Turck said they’re

The Venice Pride Board includes Sergio Perez, Grant Turck and Richard Tobin.

calling it the Beer Garden and expects it to be quite the daylong party. “This first year back after the pandemic, there’s a lot more people just ready to celebrate and party,” Turck said. “That’s one of the reasons we expanded and moved to this new location.” The inaugural Venice Pride Parade will take place on June 5 starting at 11 a.m. down the boardwalk. It will be, Turck said, the greenest Pride Parade in the world because there will be no cars or motorized vehicles. Turck said that in the past few years there has been a lot of negativity surrounding the boardwalk and they wanted to help relaunch it with a positive spin. “It’s a really unique place and gives us the opportunity to do a parade that’s kind of non-traditional,” Turck said. Everyone, he said, will either be marching on foot or riding a bicycle. The Venice Heritage Museum is putting together a push float and he said others might also create self-propelled floats. Turck said it is important for organizations like Venice Pride to stay vigilant and not take anything for granted. In the past several years, the Supreme Court makeup has changed, putting many rights at risk. Places like Florida are passing laws forbidding teachers to talk about LGBTQ+ people or issues in school, and Texas tried to criminalize parents who supported their trans children. “Community is so important and remaining organized is so important,” Turck said. “Our tagline this year is ‘Be who you are.’ So you know that at Venice Pride, you can come as you are, be who you are and just celebrate yourself. That’s what we hope people will do.” Venice Pride’s logo is of the Pride Rainbow Flag lifeguard station on Venice Beach, a permanent landmark that was built in 2017, and Turck hopes people will check that out and enjoy the beach when they come in for the festival and other events. “Venice Pride began as a grassroots effort to create new opportunities for social connection among LGBTQ Angelenos on the Westside and beyond,” Turck said. “We’ve witnessed a beautiful revitalization of our community over the last five years. As we come out of COVID, we’re bursting with excitement to celebrate again with everyone in triumphant ways this June.”

Venice Pride

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ACROSS

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Mexican noodle soup 15 Top 19 Comparison words 20 “Oh, cry me a river” 21 Neighbor 22 Ski area in

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McEntire 55 Big name in baby food 57 Middle Alou brother 58 Heavy __ 59 Mass book 61 Thus far 62 Retort from a self-appointed authority 63 Chap 64 First-rate dog

shelter? 68 Water under le pont 69 “Gotcha” 71 Comedy duo

Garfunkel and __ 72 Gold units 74 Greek god of the underworld 75 Not straight 76 Celebrated, as a holiday 78 Landed 79 Cooking stove 80 Tropical veranda 81 Lairs 85 Extremely blah coif? 87 Temperature unit 88 Calendario square 89 Singer Carly __

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Consent” 107 Queue for lottery tickets? 113 North Carolina campus 114 Dorky sort 115 New version of an old film 116 Jessica of “L.A.’s

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DOWN

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Fisher 17 Stretch on the job 18 Like lemonade 24 iPad speaker 26 Resort town on Colorado’s

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Lindsay 65 Drinks for the house 66 Key __ 67 Kyiv’s country 70 Writer/actor

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Coyote 79 Genetic material 80 “__ Misérables” 82 “Modern Family” co-star 83 Little cut 84 Nordstrom rival 86 Conservationist

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