Loud and Proud

According to some lesbian friends, Halloween is the gay Christmas, the Oscars are the gay Super Bowl and Christmas is for everybody (but best celebrated by the LGBT community). What does that make PrideFest? A little bit of each. The two-day celebration of St. Louis' vibrant LGBT community takes place this Saturday and Sunday (June 26 and 27) at Tower Grove Park (4256 Magnolia Avenue; www.pridestl.org), and it's the pu-pu platter of all-inclusive holidays. You get costumes at the pet parade (noon Saturday at the intersection of Morganford Road and Utah Street), you get the pageantry of the official Pride Parade (noon Sunday, starting at the intersection of Gravois Avenue and Grand Boulevard), and you get the love and spirituality of the group commitment ceremony at 3 p.m. Saturday (in the park). There're also scads of musical performances both days, vendors, beer (please note that absolutely no outside alcohol will be allowed in the park no matter how sexy you are) and an estimated 85,000 of your best friends proudly representing every color in the sexual-gender rainbow. Admission is free both days because this is America and we're all in this together.
Sat., June 26; Sun., June 27, 2010