Mexico’s premiere gay beach destination celebrates a weeklong Pride Festival each year, and 2017 brought many new activities and milestones for the Puerto Vallarta LGBT community. In addition to the usual gay parade and nightly parties for the boys (and girls!), this year the activities included an enormous block party with an estimated crowd of 7,000 revelers sponsored by several local bars, several art installations by international LGBT artists, film openings and art openings, and even a drag-queen derby!
The parade itself wound for several kilometers through the heart of tourist Puerto Vallarta via the world-famous Malecón before crossing the bridge over the Rio Cuale into the heart of Old Town, one of the gayest places in all of Mexico! It began at 7:00 p.m. on a Wednesday evening, and the floats didn’t arrive to the end until well after sunset. Taking that into consideration, the floats all had lights and illumination, a unique aspect in gay parades around the world.
Another unique feature this year was the presence of the first rainbow designed and sewn by Gilbert Baker in San Francisco in 1978. The original flag is being sent to Pride festivities around the world this year to commemorate the importance of this symbol of liberation to millions after Baker passed away earlier this year. And, for the first time this year, the mayor of Puerto Vallarta, Arturo Dávalos Peña, joined in the parade, along with several other municipal authorities and a large group of public safety officers, tourism police, civil protection and firefighters.
Mexico Event Design has already signed on to be one of the sponsors of the 2018 Pride Festivities, to be held in Puerto Vallarta the week of May 19-27, 2018!
For more reports on the Pride Festival, here are some resources we found:
“Why I had to fly to Mexico for a proper Pride” – Toronto Sun, May 31, 2017
“95 Photos of the Crazy Party That’s Puerto Vallarta Pride” – The Advocate, June 1, 2017