LA Pride has long been the LA area's go-to LGBTQ celebration. The show of solidarity has always attracted crowds from beyond its West Hollywood borders, and a plan to market this June's event as more of a summer music festival seemed to broaden that audience even more. Carly Rae Jepsen, Charli XCX, Krewella, Faith Evans and Da Brat have all been tapped to perform at this year's fest, which was being officially billed as the "LA Pride Music Festival & Parade."
But with that more ambitious scope came costlier tickets; both single day and weekend pass prices jumped $15, and the typically free Friday night programming was limited to ticketholders only. Now, Christopher Street West, which produces LA Pride each June, has decided to lower ticket prices after an outpouring of community input.
Under the new pricing model, Friday night will once again be free, and single-day tickets will drop to $25 in advance and $30 at the gate, down from $30 and $35 respectively. The new prices will take effect when single-day tickets go on sale Tuesday, May 17; weekend passes, however, appear to remain unchanged, as does the always-free parade.
The higher-budget, higher-priced festival faced a lot of pushback from the LGBTQ community, according to local website The Pride, specifically that its steeper prices and pursuit of a millennial, Coachella-like crowd damaged the celebration's inclusiveness. While the price change and an apology letter from Christopher Street West have seemed to quiet some of the outcry, some concerns over the event's budget still remain.
Festival organizers—who have seemingly dropped "music" from the event's name—have promised to engage the local community more when putting together the 2017 fest. You can read the full letter from Christopher Street West here.