Virtual, but still a celebration: How to celebrate Charlotte LGBTQ+ pride this weekend
Instead of marching through uptown, members and allies of the LGBTQ+ community will celebrate Pride this weekend with back-to-back virtual events.
Charlotte Pride’s annual parade, normally the event’s biggest gathering, was moved to a virtual broadcast with small watch parties this year due to still-high local COVID-19 infection rates.
Organizers announced in September that Pride this year would consist of virtual celebrations and smaller gatherings, including pop-up shops and a scavenger hunt, from Oct. 16 through Nov. 14.
“It was very disappointing to decide to do live broadcasts and virtual events this year, but we’re excited about the new format,” Charlotte Pride spokesperson Matt Comer said. “We hope this gives people a sense of pride that can hold them over until we return to the streets of uptown in August 2022.”
Earlier this year, organizers announced several in-person events over the course of four months to avoid widespread gatherings of people in a short time span. But after monitoring COVID-19 numbers in Charlotte, organizers changed plans.
Charlotte Pride usually draws nearly 200,000 visitors a year and creates millions of dollars in revenue in the city. Last year’s celebration, which was canceled because of the pandemic, was supposed to be its 20th anniversary.
This weekend’s Pride celebrations will kick off with a drag pageant Friday at 8 p.m. which will be broadcast live online at charlottepride.org/live/. Five contestants will compete in three different categories for three titles: Miss Charlotte Pride, Mr. Charlotte Pride and Mx. Charlotte Pride.
Despite the different platform, the format of the pageant will be generally the same. The contestants will participate in an evening-wear and Q&A segments and perform a talent. As judges tally up scores for the new drag court, former title holders also will perform.
Before Saturday night’s livestream, members and allies of the LGBTQ+ community can bar hop in South End during a masquerade bar crawl hosted by Charlotte Pride and Time Out Youth. Tickets are $20 online and $25 the day of the event, which starts at 1 p.m. at Suffolk Punch on Griffith Street, near the light-rail.
Replacing what would be “main stage entertainment in a normal year” will be a live broadcast from iHeartRadio studios in Charlotte, Comer said.
“It’ll be very much live, in every sense of the word,” he said.
The audience will be composed of Pride volunteers.
A preshow starts at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, and the live show kicks off at 7 p.m. The 2 1/2-hour event will be hosted by three emcees and will include comedy sets, acoustic performers, as well as spoken word artists. The main act is local R&B singer Dexter Jordan.
For those who want to celebrate in-person, Sidelines Sports Bar on South Boulevard is hosting a watch party on Saturday night.
The weekend will round out with Charlotte Pride’s annual interfaith service, which will be broadcast live at 6 p.m. Sunday from St. John’s Baptist Church. The audience will again be mostly composed of volunteers and won’t be open to the public.
The keynote speaker is Rev. Clifford Matthews Jr., senior pastor at St. Luke’s Missionary Baptist Church. Charlotte Pride organizers plan to host an in-person service next year at St. Luke’s, the first time the annual service will take place at a historically Black faith congregation.
“Like everybody else, we are so anxious to return to in-person events,” Comer said. “We’re very much looking forward to 2022.”
