Philadelphia's 2025 Pride weekend will feature 600-foot Progress Pride flag, largest in U.S., organizers say
The largest Progress Pride flag in the U.S. will return and be even larger in 2025 as Philadelphia's LGBTQ+ community and allies gather for the Philadelphia Pride March and Festival.
Organizers with Philly Pride 365 have already announced a ton of plans for the kickoff weekend starting Friday, May 30, but more announcements are coming in the next one to two weeks, including performers, stage locations and food truck and vendor lists.
The group says this year's Pride Month is extra special in Philadelphia — it marks 50 years since former Pennsylvania Gov. Milton Shapp signed an executive order making the Keystone State the first to prohibit discrimination toward LGBTQ+ state employees. The order was later expanded to include state contractors as well.
Advocates have called for the Pennsylvania Senate to pass the Fairness Act, a bill that ensures equal protections for LGBTQ+ Pennsylvanians.
Philly Pride 365
When is the 2025 Philadelphia Pride Parade?
Pride Weekend in Philadelphia features several events leading up to the June 1 Pride March, not a parade.
Things kick off with the Pride Around the City event on Friday, May 30. During this event, the massive Progress Pride flag will make its way to several major landmarks around the city.
The flag will be 600 feet long this year, longer than an average Center City block. Last year's 400-foot Pride flag stretched down all the steps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, so it'll be interesting to see how Pride Around the City handles the extra 200 feet of fabric!
The Philadelphia Pride Flag seen on Independence Mall in 2023.
Philly Pride 365
The 600-foot flag will be the largest pride flag in Philly history and may set a record for the biggest pride flag in Pennsylvania. It was designed for the 2025 Philly Pride March and made in the state.
Saturday, the day after Pride Around the City, features the LUV (Legacy, Unity, Visibility Awards) and the Pride Promenade held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Sunday's Pride March will kick off from 6th and Walnut streets at 10:30 a.m. and end in the Gayborhood. Philly Pride 365 says the exact route is still being finalized and will be revealed closer to the date of the march.
The events this year have a new fiscal sponsor, the Urban Affairs Coalition.
Philadelphia Pride Festival is larger this year
Following the march, the Philadelphia Pride Festival is happening from 12 p.m. to 7 p.m. The festival area will extend from Walnut Street down to Pine and from Juniper Street east to Quince Street.
The festival will feature entertainment zones with stages, a youth and family zone with drag story time, a "sober vibes zone" that's alcohol-free, a sensory-friendly zone and the Sapphic Way.
There's no admission or registration required to attend the festival, and food and drink are pay-as-you-go.
Watch out for road closure announcements closer to the event.
What is the Progress Pride Flag and how is it different from the traditional rainbow flag?
The most common rainbow Pride flag has six stripes: red, orange, yellow, green, royal blue and purple. The late activist Gilbert Baker is widely credited for creating this flag in 1978, originally with eight stripes. The redesign and cut to six stripes happened in part due to a shortage of commercially available pink fabric and a desire to keep the number of stripes even.
According to the Human Rights Campaign, the Progress Pride Flag features all the colors of the traditional flag with additional white, pink and light blue stripes to represent the transgender community, and black and brown stripes to represent LGBTQ+ people of color. The black stripe is also a memorial to the thousands of people who died during the HIV/AIDS epidemic, HRC says.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CBS News
5 days ago
- CBS News
2025 Philly Pride March and Festival takes over city streets: "I see nothing but love"
Thousands of people came together to fill city streets to show off their pride at the 2025 Philadelphia Pride March and Festival. "I see nothing but love, it's crazy out here, but we're all having a great time," Daron Summiel said. "It feels like equality, it feels like it's what life should be," Dennis Cannady said. The day started with the Pride March up Walnut Street as participants carried a 600-foot rainbow flag. "It's really emotional to see everyone come together because sometimes we feel so divided," Angelique Kopacz said. The streets around 11th and Locust then swelled for the Pride Festival featuring food, music, merchandise and more. David Weisburg is the chief development officer for the Mazzoni Center, a nonprofit serving the LGBTQ+ community. He said showing up now is more important than ever before. "After so much progress that's been made over so long, it's scary to think that there are rights that are being threatened," Weisberg said. Gabrielle Caplan-Mayer came to support her son. "I think, like many parents of trans kids, we want them just to have the acceptance and dignity of any young person, of any human being," she said. This year's Pride fest is even bigger than ever, expanding all the way down to Walnut Street, and with picture-perfect skies, organizers are expecting this to be a record turnout. "I think we have over 200 vendors, over 45 food trucks, 6 or 7, 8 stages, I don't even know anymore, there's so many things going on," Philly Pride 365 producer Jeremy Williams said. For Williams, these crowds prove pride is here to stay in a very big way. "Everybody just wants us to be proud. We're all here together to be proud, and the community is growing, it's not shrinking," Williams said.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Yahoo
With so many weekend events, find out how Philly police are meeting the security challenge
The Brief Philadelphia police discuss security preps ahead of big events in the city this weekend. The Roots Picnic Music Festival is on Saturday and Sunday and Philly Pride Month festivities kick off on Friday. The music festival and the Philadelphia Pride March attract large crowds annually. CENTER CITY - Security in Philadelphia is going to be high throughout the weekend due to all the events happening, with the Roots Picnic Music Festival and Philly Pride Month festivities and falling just days after a mass shooting in Fairmount Park. Heightened security This weekend, tens of thousands of people are expected to attend the Roots Picnic Music Festival and Philly Pride Month festivities, and Philadelphia police are planning a large security presence to match. In fact, Chief Inspector John Przepiorka, the Commanding Officer of the PPD Tactical Support Bureau, said in light of the mass shooting on Memorial Day there will be stepped-up deployment in the Philadelphia Park System. "That will consist of uniformed officers, as well as plain-clothes officers, riding through the parks, checking on the crowd capacity, what the size is – what's going on in the park – is it just kids at play or is there anything nefarious in the works – that kind of thing," said Chief Inspector Przepiorka. "We're going to keep a better eye on the parks throughout the area and again to make sure that people that can go there, can enjoy the park and have a great time, but also to prevent anything from occurring in the future." Planning Przepiorka said security planning for events starts weeks in advance, and sometimes months and even years, depending on the nature of the event. The department goes over deployment strategies for officers, state and federal partners and special operations units. "Sweeps in the morning with our K9 unit looking for anything that may be suspicious. We will then also have our uniformed officers present at the venue site itself, which could also incorporate officers on bicycles to have more roaming capabilities of being in the area, being visible and present," said Przepiorka. Big picture view In addition to deployment strategies, police also collaborate with partners at the Intelligence Bureau on the local, state and federal level to look for any information to help police identify an issue before it happens. "Easy for things to get raucous and out of control, but I think we do a great job of striking that balance to make people feel safe and still able to have as much fun as possible," said Aaron Corpora of South Philly. "I've been to some Pride events and Roots last year as well, and my girlfriend will be here this weekend. She's looking forward to it. She loves the Roots event, so she'll be out there this weekend without a doubt."
Axios
30-05-2025
- Axios
Philadelphia road closures for Pride and Roots Picnic
Philadelphia's Pride March and Roots Picnic are headlining a jam-packed weekend in the city. Why it matters: Parties, performances and one big Pride festival will draw tons of people downtown. That also means a potential traffic mess: The multi-day events are closing down several streets in Center City and elsewhere. 🏳️🌈 State of play: Philly's Pride weekend — among the largest LGBTQ+ celebrations in the country — kicks off today at the Rocky Steps (9am) as organizers tour city landmarks with a 600-foot rainbow flag. Saturday features the Pride Promenade and L.U.V. Awards (7pm) at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. (Tickets: $50-$100) The weekend culminates Sunday with a march (11am) starting at Sixth and Walnut streets and a street festival (noon-7pm) in the Gayborhood. 🎤 Meanwhile, the Roots Picnic takes over Mann Center in West Philly on Saturday and Sunday with performances by Meek Mill, Maxwell, Lenny Kravitz and Glorilla. 🚧 Road closures: For the Roots Picnic, road closures are already in place around the West Fairmount Park open-air venue, including South Concourse Drive between Belmont Avenue and 52nd Street. Starting today, crews will shut down more streets, including Wynnefield Avenue between Parkside and Belmont avenues. Streets will reopen on a staggered schedule through next Thursday. Roads in the Gayborhood will close 6am-9pm Sunday for the Pride Festival and March, generally stretching between Walnut and Pine streets, and Broad and 11th streets. Other street closures include: Juniper Street from Walnut to Cypress streets. Manning Street from S. Camac to 12th streets. 🅿️ Parking restrictions will be in effect in the area on Sunday starting at 5am, so look for posted signs. Vehicles parked in those areas will have their cars relocated. 🚌 SEPTA will detour bus routes around the Pride events on Sunday from 4:30am to approximately 9pm. What else: There's plenty more going on this weekend.
