After the Philly Pride March and Festival was moved from its typical location in the Gayborhood to Benjamin Franklin Parkway, an LGBTQ+ group began planning alternative events. The organization says the decision was not a form of protest to the change, but rather a way to extend celebrations across the city.
“We wanted to provide safe spaces within the Gayborhood as an additional experience for Pride-goers because while having Pride on the parkway can be a new and exciting experience, we still wanted to curate Pride events within the Gayborhood as a love letter to our community” said Yari, a local drag performer and co-founder of Henn House Events.
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Throughout June, Henn House has a number of drag brunches and late-night karaokes planned in the Gayborhood. The Pride weekend lineup includes a gay icons drag brunch at Strangelove’s on Saturday.
Yari said Henn House typically curates events all over the city as a way to expand queer spaces, but the group took a more focused approach this month.
“We recognize that during Pride season, there are still a handful of our community members who feel safer in the Gayborhood, so we wanted to make sure that, ‘Hey, let’s curate safe spaces within the Gayborhood for Pride, and let’s make sure that people, especially the performers who may not get a chance or may not have access to the parkway organizers, they get a chance to showcase their art,’ and that was really important for us,'” Yari said.
While Philly Pride 365 will still have events in the Gayborhood, it announced plans to move the parade and festival to the parkway in May. The organization said attendance grew from an estimated 47,000 in 2022 to about 147,000 in 2025, and the group didn’t feel the Gayborhood could provide the space, infrastructure and coordination of an event that size.
“The move was strictly to keep people safe,” said Brandon Szeker, the publicist for Philly Pride 365, adding that it also allows bars and businesses there to have more more creative control in their programming.
The move comes with a price tag for guests. While the parade is free to attend, the festival will cost $10. Philly Pride 365 said the funds will go toward staffing, security, permitting and insurance. For the past few years, Philly Pride 365 CEO Tyrell Brown has produced the event without accepting a salary, and the organization said it wanted to change that this year.
“This reflects the continued growth of the event, the need for a safer and more accessible footprint, and a broader vision for Pride as one of Philadelphia’s largest civic and cultural gatherings,” according to the group’s website. “This is not a departure from the Gayborhood. It is an evolution in how Pride is produced and how the organization can best serve the community at its current scale”
In response to backlash over the newly imposed cost to attend this year’s festival, Philly Pride 365 said it plans to have a number of other free events and pointed out that some local businesses are giving away tickets. Szeker also noted the “powerhouse” lineup on Sunday that includes the “Godmother of Soul” Patti LaBelle.
In organizing Henn House’s events, Yari said she worked with venues to make the events free to attend. And for anything purchased at the festivities, proceeds will go to the William Way LGBT Community Center.
“Pride, what it means to us is truly giving that power back to the community, truly enabling our community to be resilient, to find their light, and also to say that Pride is who you are, not if you’re supporting a gay or a queer establishment, it’s not necessarily just about raising money for a traditional queer bar, it’s more about creating community,” Yari said.
Whether people decide to celebrate on the parkway or in the Gayborhood, Szeker said, “Pride is wherever you are.”
