Palm Springs Pride Celebrates 40 Years
Palm Springs has long been a queer-friendly escape, with more than half of the city’s population identifying as LGBTQ+. This November, it celebrates a milestone: Palm Springs Pride turns 40, with the theme “Be Included” honoring the generations, identities and communities that built it.
Pride Week runs October 30 to November 8, and it’s a very Palm Springs kind of celebration. Think a ceremonial rainbow flag unfurling to kick things off, a heated pool party with a lazy river, one of the largest free LGBTQ+ street parties in the region on Arenas Road, and a walkable downtown festival with 250+ vendors, all framed by a mountain backdrop. The parade steps off Sunday, November 8 in the Uptown Design District and winds through downtown with comedian and actor Fortune Feimster as the 2026 National Grand Marshal and Broadway, television and recording star Cheyenne Jackson as Celebrity Grand Marshal.
This story goes well beyond Pride weekend, though. The LGBTQ-owned businesses that make Palm Springs what it is are open year-round: cocktail lounges like Paul Bar/Food and courtyard bistros like Jake’s, midcentury design showrooms like PS HomeBoys and bookstores like Just Fabulous, or Cicada Fine Art, an art gallery spotlighting drag-inspired work, and even a sightseeing tour, Drag & Fly Tours, where local drag queens narrate the city’s history aboard a custom coach. It’s a destination where queer culture is part of the architecture, the nightlife and the shopping, not just a weekend on the calendar.
