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WorldPride 2025 hosts 50th Anniversary Capital Pride event
1 of 3 | Marchers carry a pride banner in the WorldPride 2025 Parade and 50th anniversary of the Capital Pride Parade in Washington, D.C., on Saturday afternoon. Photo by Leigh Vogel/UPI | License Photo
June 7 (UPI) -- Thousands converged to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Capital Pride Parade Saturday in Washington, D.C., amid an extended WorldPride LGBTQ+ celebration.
The two-day WorldPride Music Fest and parade marked Saturday's portion of a three-day celebration of Capital Pride that concludes on Sunday.
The event is billed as the "world's largest LGBTQ+" celebration and includes a music festival that is being held on three stages and features performers like Jennifer Lopez.
"Over the years, your love and your support have been a source of strength for me, and today I am here to celebrate with you," Lopez said during her performance Friday night at the event's RFK Campus Festival Grounds.
"I'm so happy to be able to be here to celebrate community, diversity, love and freedom," Lopez told her audience.
Paris Hilton, Marina, Rita Ora and several other acts also performed on Friday.
Musical acts scheduled to perform on Saturday include RuPaul, Troye Sivan and Rene Rapp, Sofi Tukker, Purple Disco Machineand others.
Saturday's Capital Pride Parade began at 2 p.m. EDT and lasted for six hours as it proceeded from the intersection of 14th and T Street N.W. and through Thomas Circle before turning onto Pennsylvania Avenue and concluding near the Navy Memorial.
Spectators and visitors filled restaurants and drinking establishments along the parade route.
Parade participants included cheerleaders, a 300-member choir and volunteers holding a 1,000-foot rainbow flag.
Deacon Maccubbin, who organized the first Capital Pride Parade in 1975, served as the parade's grand marshal. So did actresses ReneeRapp and Laverne Cox.
Singer and actress Cynthia Erivo was scheduled to headline a parade-ending concert at 3rd Street and Pennsylvania Avenue.
The extended WorldPride event annually rotates among leading world cities and got underway on May 17 in Washington, D.C.
The event concludes on Sunday with a rally and march that begins at the Lincoln Memorial and ends at the U.S. Capitol.
