BOSTON—Boston Pride Week 2018 is celebrating its 48th anniversary at the Pride Parade and Festival on Saturday, June 9. This year’s theme is Rainbow Resistance and focuses on the current political climate and redoubles the need for the diverse groups that encompass the LGBTQ community to stand together.
The Pride Parade is one of the largest public parades in New England and will feature more than 350 contingents, 45,000 participants, and over 500,000 spectators. The 2.27-mile parade starts at 12:00 p.m. on Saturday, June 9, at the intersection of Boylston and Clarendon Streets in Copley Square with a ribbon-cutting by Mayor Martin J. Walsh and Boston Pride Committee members. The Grand Marshals and Honorary Marshals for the 48th Annual Boston Pride Parade are: Grand Marshal Freedom for All Massachusetts, Parade Marshal Jo Trigilio, Honorary Parade Marshals, awarded posthumously, the late Gordon Burns and Edie Windsor.
“Boston Pride is wicked proud to host the 48th annual Parade and Festival to bring our community together to celebrate and to keep fighting for equal rights,” said Sylvain Bruni, President of Boston Pride. “As an advocate for the LGBTQ community, Boston Pride has been hosting events and opportunities that promote inclusiveness, and where we can stand together as a community, for over four decades.”
The Parade will also include a remembrance contingent in the first section to honor 11 transgender people fatally shot or killed by other violent means so far in 2018; a “Mayors of America” contingent invited by Mayor Walsh who is hosting the annual U.S. Conference of Mayors in Boston from June 8 – 11; and contingents from Boston’s major league sports teams the Boston Red Sox, Boston Bruins, and the New England Revolution, as well as a Team Boston GGX contingent to support our region’s athletes and artists who will compete at the 10thGay Games in Paris this summer.
The parade route winds its way from the Back Bay, through the South End, by the Boston Common, up Beacon Hill, and to Government Center. It ends at City Hall Plaza where the Boston Pride Festival will take place from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
The Pride Festival includes a free concert featuring headliners Martha Wash and Big Freedia. Other performers include Boketto the Wolf, Happy Little Clouds, Justin Dearborn, Long Arm Rex and Queens with a Mission. Emcees of the festival include Verna Turbulence and Fast Freddy.
Martha Wash
Martha’s voice has dominated the airwaves, and her charisma and spirit have embraced millions of people around the world. She is responsible for some of the top-selling, most recognizable pop hits of the 80s and 90s: the cult pop classic “It’s Raining Men,” “Sweat (Everybody Dance Now),” which sold five and a half million copies worldwide, and “Strike It Up,” which is still heard at every NFL and NBA game.
Big Freedia
Known as the Queen of Bounce, Big Freedia is a New Orleans-based rapper and ambassador of bounce music – a vibrant form of hip-hop, characterized by call-and-response lyrics on top of rapid-fire beats. A prominent force in the New Orleans club scene for over two decades, Big Freedia brings bounce to the worldwide stage with her hit reality show Big Freedia Bounces Back on the Fuse channel. Big Freedia collaborated with Beyoncé on the Grammy single, “Formation,” and with Sia on “Eye of the Needle,” which appeared in the Adult Swimseries. Big Freedia is well known for the single “I Heard.”
Boston Pride Week 2018 ends on Sunday, June 10 with the block parties in Back Bay and Jamaica Plain andPride Grand Finale at The Grand.
The social media hashtags for the 2018 Boston Pride celebration will be #WickedProud and #RainbowResistance.
About Boston Pride
Boston Pride produces events and activities to achieve inclusivity, equality, respect, and awareness in Greater Boston and beyond. Fostering diversity, unity, visibility, and dignity, we educate, communicate and advocate by building and strengthening community connections. Boston Pride Week 2018 will be held June 1 – 10.
[From a News Release]
