The parade staging location is at Cheesman Park in Denver's gay village, the Capitol Hill neighborhood. Floats are built by various companies and organizations that support LGBT rights. The PrideFest parade generally begins at 9:30am. Roads are reopened about an hour after cleanup. The festival comes to a close in the early evening. Local and nationally recognized performers offer entertainment at multiple stages during the event. Several companies and organizations also rent booths to show their support for Denver's and Colorado's LGBT community. Vendors sell a variety of products such as homemade jewelry, stained glass, apparel, food, and services. After the parade, the roads surrounding Civic Center Park (Broadway, the "Colfax Curve", Bannock, and 14th Avenue Parkway) remain closed during the rally and street fair. A stretch of Colfax Avenue is closed for the Sunday parade, from Franklin Street west to Broadway. Celebrations at local establishments begin the week of PrideFest, with a conclusion of the entire celebration the following Sunday. PrideFest generally occurs the third weekend of June.
Denver PrideFest now draws 525,000 guests annually, making it the third largest pride festival and seventh largest pride parade in the United States. The event currently consists of a two-day festival at Civic Center Park, the Pride 5K, and culminates with a parade along Colfax Avenue.
The Center organizes and produces the festival and parade each year. The first Denver PrideFest occurred in 1976, the same year the local community center, now known as the Center on Colfax, was founded. PrideFest is an annual Gay pride event held each June in Denver, honoring the culture and heritage of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community in the State of Colorado. JSTOR ( June 2013) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)Ī view of the PrideFest celebration on East Colfax Avenue in Denver in 2008.Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. This article needs additional citations for verification.