Overview
- The city-run parade, which stepped off at 10 a.m. Sunday with a record 141 entries, followed Friday’s last-minute shutdown of the Marina Green Park festival over permitting.
- City officials say they could not complete safety reviews because organizers failed to submit approved structural, electrical, staging and emergency-exit plans, noting applications are typically due about 65 days in advance and late materials Friday night were still incomplete.
- Long Beach Pride’s leaders called the cancellation harmful to the LGBTQ+ community and said they believed they had provided the needed paperwork, urging city leaders to find a path forward.
- City Manager Tom Modica said organizers switched production companies on Wednesday and then declined late offers to move parts of the event to the Terrace Theater and Bixby Park, where the city hosted a free replacement show titled “Canceled? Never Heard of Her!”
- Vendors and bars set up pop-up celebrations across the city as questions linger over refunds for roughly 300 advance tickets at $75 each, with the city pledging to reimburse business permits and local businesses working to recoup lost Pride-weekend revenue.