This weekend Philly welcomes OURfest: National Coming Out Parade and Festival/Resource Fair. Festivities begin on Friday night with an OURfest Welcome Part and Parade Preview at the Pennsylvania Convention Center from 6 — 8 pm. ickets are sale now for $50 each to support the weekend events – and tickets include a private exclusive preview of the parade floats, music spinning from DJ Robert Drake, cash bar, and lite bites.

On Saturday, October 7 from 4 – 6 pm the parade takes places, taking its first historic steps off if Independence Mall heading to the Philadelphia “gayborhood” with floats, marching bands, artists, performers, officials, community leaders, and more. We’ll also see the return of the largest rainbow pride flag in Pennsylvania history — it is 200 feet long and needs 3-4 dozen people to carry it!  This is a national first, the first parade in America in Celebration of National Coming Out Day/Weekend! Inaugural grand marshals include Giselle Fetterman, Celena Morrison, Rue Landau, Jose Demarco, Legendary and Robert Drake.

On Sunday, the OURfest National Coming Out Festival and Resource Fair will take place from 12 – 7 pm (the resource fair and family zone will close up by 5 pm, and last call for the mobile bars and food trucks will be around 6:30 pm). National Coming Out Day/Weekend has been absent for the past three years and the neighborhood is excited to bring it back. The festival will practically take over the Gayborhood and Midtown village with hundreds of vendors, entertainers, artists, restaurants, food trucks, and community organizations.

OURfest is a brand new celebration presented by the same organizer of the largest Gay Pride Month in Philadelphia history, Galaei Pride 365. OUR standing for Our Uniting Resilience. Individuals, groups and businesses still interested in joining the parade line-up – or for the festival and resource fair – can visit http://nationalcomingout.org/

After a few years of pride programming being in flux, Galaei, a historic organization serving queer, trans, black, brown, indigenous, and people of color, has taken up the mantle for programming under the banner of Pride 365. This new program provided the Philadelphia Gay Pride March and Festival with new leadership, new stability and a renewed sense of community and purpose. Now, after the pandemic and a three year absence, Galaei’s Pride 365 Initiative will bring new life back to National Coming Out Day/Weekend in October.

“We developed Galaei’s Pride 365 Initiative to redefine and elevate Pride Month Month in June – and we are excited to do the same thing in October for National Coming Out Day/Weekend,” said Galaei Executive Director and Community Organizer Tyrell Brown (they/them). “Gay Pride and National Coming Out are crucial opportunities for our communities to join together in celebration and reflection, to find family and togetherness, to have access to resources, and to share the love, art and joy that are hallmarks of our community.”

Photos courtesy of Cody Aldrich Photography – Aversa PR. Thank you to Aversa PR for the press release sharing this information with the Philly Family community.