After its debut last year, the Arlington Pride Festival is back — this time, with a whole weekend of events.
The inaugural festival in 2022 lasted one day, with thousands of attendees, according to the festival’s website. Now, it will run Friday, June 23, through that Sunday.
“Our goal is for The Arlington Pride Festival to grow year after year,” according to the event’s website. “For 2023, we have decided to expand Arlington Pride to an entire weekend of celebration!”
Before the 2022 festival, Arlingtonians celebrated LGBTQ pride with independent events throughout the county. Now, festival organizers say they expect more than 7,000 attendees next weekend — building on the unexpected turnout for its inaugural festival.
“In 2022, we anticipated ~3,000 attendees for The Arlington Pride Festival,” organizers said. “However, Arlington really came out to show [their] pride, and we ended up welcoming over 5,000 attendees throughout the day!”
The pride weekend will begin on Friday at 8 p.m. with a drag pageant at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City hotel near Reagan National Airport. Tickets, which range from $20 to $160, are required to attend the event and can be found on Eventbrite.
“This event will be full of charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent from our contestant, and an abundance of drag entertainment as we determine who takes the crown for 2023,” the event description says. “This is a family friendly event that is taking place at Arlington Pride’s host hotel.”
Saturday will kick off with a free hour-long fitness class in Gateway Park (1300 Langston Blvd) at 10:30 a.m. Organizers encourage registration as space is limited.
From 12-7 p.m., the park will host vendors, live entertainment, a DJ, photo stations, games and prizes, per an event page. The evening will conclude with an after-party.
On Sunday, a drag-themed brunch held at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema (1660 Crystal Drive) will go from 12-3 p.m., with a $20 ticket required for entry. The movie theater is concurrently showing movies about the LGBTQ experience, through June 25.
Advance general admission ticket sales and spot reservations for the pride fest are scheduled to end tomorrow (Friday).