Long Beach Pride’s festival at Marina Green Park was canceled Friday after the City of Long Beach said it still had not received the documentation needed to clear the event for public safety. The city said at 4:30 p.m. that the required paperwork remained outstanding, and the festival, scheduled to begin at 5 p.m., could not go forward.
The city said the annual Long Beach Pride Festival could not take place this year because sufficient information to safely permit the event had not been made available by organizers. The event required detailed operational, construction and public safety plans, and the city said it did not receive the documentation needed to finish safety reviews or inspect critical infrastructure, including the stage, electrical systems, tent and emergency exiting plans.
That leaves one part of the weekend intact. The Long Beach Pride Parade, with 141 entries, is still scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. Sunday, and the city said it is the most ever. The parade has become the centerpiece of a weekend that usually pairs the march with the festival at Marina Green Park, but this year the festival was running independently and was set to unfold without the city’s final safety approval.
Long Beach Pride said it was deeply disappointed by the city’s decision and described the festival as a community institution that has stood for more than four decades. In a statement, the group called on the City of Long Beach, Mayor Rex Richardson, the City Council and public safety partners to work in good faith to find a responsible path forward that preserves the festival, protects public safety and honors the community the event was created to serve.
The tension now sits in the gap between safety rules and an event with deep local history. The city says it cannot permit a festival without the required plans, while Long Beach Pride is pressing for a solution that would keep the gathering alive. For now, the result is split in two: the parade will move ahead on Sunday morning, and the festival that many in the community regard as a long-standing anchor of Long Beach Pride will not.
