9th annual Oakland, CA, Pride parade and festival biggest yet
In typical below-the-radar fashion over the past decade, Oakland has home-brewed a low-key alternative to San Francisco’s world-famous Pride march. It’s scrappier, funkier and less corporate. And like the best parades, it seemed to have as many marchers as onlookers Sunday.
Sunday marked Oakland’s ninth Pride festival and fifth parade. Eighty-three contingents marched up Broadway from 14th to 19th streets, where Franklin Street was closed to traffic and transformed into a rollicking street festival.
There were 200 venders and exhibitors. About 250 volunteers in tie-dyed Oakland Pride T-shirts worked the gates and answered questions. Entrance to the post-parade festival was $10. You could buy polish sausages, psychedelic paintings of sunsets, dairy-free milkshakes, ice-cold Coronas, fishnet stockings, nipple tassels and Oakland-centric, LGBTQ T-shirts.
Parade and festival producer Jacob Dornan said that the event is getting more popular every year.
“This is definitely the biggest yet,” he said. “We have big plans for the 10th anniversary next year.”
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/9th-annual-Oakland-Pride-parade-and-festival-13216432.php
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