By Valerie Milano
Palm Springs, CA (The Hollywood Times) 7/1/26 – Greater Palm Springs Pride is preparing to celebrate a milestone four decades in the making as Palm Springs Pride marks its 40th Anniversary in 2026. The celebration will culminate November 6–8, 2026, in Downtown Palm Springs, where residents, visitors, artists, activists, volunteers, and allies will gather for one of the most beloved Pride celebrations in the country.
For The Hollywood Times, this milestone is especially meaningful. As a proud media partner of Palm Springs Pride, and as last year’s Spirit of Stonewall Arts & Culture Award recipient, I know firsthand how deeply this celebration reflects the heart, courage, creativity, and resilience of our desert LGBTQ+ community.
Palm Springs Pride began in 1986 with a much smaller gathering called “Sizzle,” an evening dinner and variety show held at the Riviera Resort. At a time when LGBTQ+ visibility was not guaranteed, that first event offered something powerful: a place to be seen, embraced, and celebrated.
That same year, the first Desert Gay and Lesbian Pride Parade made its way through Palm Springs with just 35 parade entries, traveling from Williams Road to Mesquite Avenue and ending at Demuth Park. What started as a modest community gathering has grown into one of the largest Pride celebrations in California, now welcoming more than 200,000 attendees during Pride Week.
Over the past 40 years, Palm Springs has evolved into one of the world’s most recognized LGBTQ+ destinations. Pride has grown alongside the city, becoming not only a celebration, but also a living reminder of the advocacy, sacrifice, joy, and determination that shaped this community.
The 40th Anniversary theme is rooted in strength, diversity, and resilience. It honors the founders, volunteers, local leaders, artists, organizations, and everyday community members who helped build Palm Springs Pride into what it is today. It also looks ahead, recognizing that the work of equality and visibility continues.
Across the country, LGBTQ+ people still face political, social, and personal challenges. That reality makes Pride as necessary now as it was 40 years ago. Pride is joy, music, color, and celebration, but it is also a promise. A promise to stand together. A promise to protect one another. A promise to create spaces where everyone can live openly, safely, authentically, and with dignity.
Leading up to Pride Weekend, Greater Palm Springs Pride will be sharing stories from its history, spotlighting community leaders and organizations, celebrating love stories born at Pride, inviting volunteers to get involved, and offering a behind-the-scenes look at the people and partnerships that make this extraordinary celebration possible.
Community participation remains at the center of Pride. Volunteers, sponsors, artists, performers, local businesses, donors, and nonprofit partners all help keep the festival vibrant, inclusive, and accessible. Whether someone is helping at an event, offering professional skills, joining a volunteer team, donating resources, or simply showing up in support, every contribution matters.
Greater Palm Springs Pride is also inviting performers to be part of the 40th Anniversary celebration. Musicians, bands, DJs, drag artists, dancers, cultural performers, comedians, spoken-word artists, and entertainers of all kinds are encouraged to submit interest in joining the 2026 lineup. With multiple stages planned throughout the weekend, Pride will once again showcase the creativity, authenticity, and diversity that define the community.
The celebration begins before November with the Pride Walk on Saturday, October 17, in the Arenas District. The walk will unite participants in support of LGBTQ+ visibility, rights, justice, and equality, while also helping ensure that the November Pride Festival remains free and accessible. The walk begins at 8:30 a.m. and travels through downtown Palm Springs before returning to the Arenas District for music, food, drinks, and community celebration.
As part of the anniversary, Palm Springs Pride is also collecting love stories from couples who met at Pride. These personal stories are a beautiful reminder that Pride is not only about public celebration, but also about private moments of connection, friendship, romance, chosen family, and lifelong love.
For 40 years, Palm Springs Pride has carried the spirit of a community that refused to disappear. It has grown from a ballroom gathering and a small parade into a landmark celebration that welcomes the world while remaining rooted in the desert’s unique LGBTQ+ history.
Whether you have attended for decades or 2026 will be your first Palm Springs Pride, you are part of this continuing story.
Here’s to 40 years of Pride. Here’s to the people who built it. Here’s to the volunteers who sustain it. Here’s to the artists, activists, elders, youth, allies, and chosen families who keep showing up.
And here’s to an unforgettable 40th Anniversary celebration in Downtown Palm Springs, November 6–8, 2026.
