Greater Palm Springs Pride Festival

This is a good time !!! I’m 100% hetro and this weekend is fun. The food the people the pets its all fun. The parade is a mad house but great for people watching. There are ton of vendors selling everything from food to leather handbags and art. Don’t be shy because its a PRIDE event, its alot of fun.
** note, last year 2015 was not as good as previous years. Some greedy bastard must have raised the price charged to vendors because many of the good ones were not there.

Stars… how many? So hard for me to choose on this review.
Let me start by saying,
#1 — I have never attended another PRIDE event other than the one in PS
#2 — I am a mostly straight female in a committed relationship
#3 — I have been to the last 3 PRIDE parades in PS (2013, 2014, 2015)
#4 — I don’t drink and am not really a partier and not a huge fan of crowds
By all accounts, I really shouldn’t love this event, but I do. A ton!
Pros —
*People watching galore
*Warm weather in November
*A great let loose time before the hectic holidays approach
* Free event (relatively…hotels have higher rates, vendors selling awesome things are enticing, yummy food trucks and the general cost of traveling)
Sounds great, why only 4 stars? Well, 2013 and ’14 were super fun and definitely worth of 5 stars. But 2015, had some disappointments making me want to leave 3 stars.
Here they are… cons (2015 only):
*Less vendors — Why, I have no idea, but vendors that are usually at EVERYthing were sorely missed (like Bean Boys Coffee). So instead of having a steady stream of items to check out, there were glaring holes along the walk from the Hyatt down to The Alley.
*Previous years had entertainment and vehicles from Burning Man in the intersection near Starbuck’s which I think was great, in addition to entertainment at the end of the fair (at The Alley). This year, there was nothing notable (no hot men with flags or DJ’s) at the middle point and instead it was all at the end of the street and since most people did not venture that far down and there were not enough vendors to keep people’s interest along the way, it was mostly a bust.
*The entertainment at the block party on Saturday night was not nearly as entertaining as year’s past IMO.
*Overall, it seemed like the event was not well planned out.
I really hope the committee gets their act together and puts on a better PRIDE in 2016 because I plan on being there again and want it to be a great event!
If you are open minded and want to have fun, consider checking supporting this community and checking out PS PRIDE.

Absolutely the best time! The move of the festival downtown and it being free was brilliant!..
I’ve been to the San Diego, Phoenix, Orange County, and Palm Springs Pride’s, and this was the best. The people are friendly and the atmosphere was exciting.

I’ve been to a lot of pride festivals and I have to say that this is one of the most unorganized and lame pride’s I’ve ever been too. I understand that typicall Palm Springs Pride is for «Trads» (traditional gays AKA White Male 40 – 50’s somethings) but really, get with the times!
The set up was in a baseball field and that was decent to navigate however the main stage was facing backwards and had a really awkward set up with a net around it making it hard to see some of the dancing acts.
As a parton, I wouldnt even bother with the festival since its 15 bucks to get in and there isnt really much to see other than some typical booths and a few drag acts. It’s no wonder to me now as to why they cant book bigger acts or get large companies to vend/​sponsor here.
As a performer, this was one of our worst gigs EVER. We were lied to about our hotel accomodations, there wasnt any help to load in or out, there wasnt a merchandise table for us to sell our stuff, the staff was rude and unappreciative making this an all around awful event. The only good part about our show is that we sounded awesome and made some new fans, so thats a positive. The sound guys working this event were professional and knew what they were doing.
Palm Springs Pride is a fail.