NBC Los Angeles Previews Viva La Vida Long Beach Pride 2017

In early May 2017, NBC Los Angeles reminded Southern California that Pride season does not wait for June. Its preview of Long Beach Pride 2017 made the case that the region’s celebrations start right here on our shoreline, every May.

And, as it has been doing since 1984, Long Beach Pride will once again welcome thousands of visitors and locals at the weekend-long tradition.

NBC Los Angeles

The station walked readers through the essentials. The festival and parade ran Saturday, May 20, and Sunday, May 21, 2017. The parade stepped off at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday from Ocean Boulevard and Lindero Avenue. Festival admission was $20 in advance and $25 at the gate.

Then came the music. NBC Los Angeles listed a lineup that stretched across genres and generations: Chaka Khan, Jody Watley and SRL, Ty Herndon, Monica, Taylor Bennett, Amanda Miguel, Mann, Brez and Maria Jose.

But the community fun, effervescent tunes, and parade-day whoopla all revs up in Long Beach ’round about the middle of May.

NBC Los Angeles

The preview closed on the year’s theme, Viva La Vida, Here’s to Life, which the station called a hope-filled message. That spring, less than a year after the loss of 49 lives at Pulse in Orlando, a message about celebrating life felt especially close to home for our community.

That is how we see Long Beach Pride too: a neighborhood celebration that opens its arms to people from all over the region. Locals and first timers stand side by side along the parade route, and the festival grounds at the shore fill with families, friends and longtime regulars.

It means a lot when a major station like NBC Los Angeles treats Long Beach Pride as the opening act of the season. Years later, NBC4 and Telemundo 52 would become official media partners of Long Beach Pride, and this kind of early coverage is part of how that relationship grew.

Read the full story at NBC Los Angeles.