Anchorage prepares for Pride Month with parade, festival

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Pride Month in the 49th state began Sunday and will be celebrated throughout the month by many Alaskans.

The Anchorage Pride Parade & Festival will kick off later in the month of June with a focus on “love, acceptance, and unity” in the LGBTQ+ community, according to the Visit Anchorage website.

Anchorage Pride Parade Chair JJ Harrier and Anchorage Pride Festival Organizer Darrin Huycke spoke on the event on June 28, which Harrier said will be part of a larger celebration lasting from June 23-29.

“It’s really a time for the community to look around and see the LGBT community as a part of,” Harrier said in a studio interview with Alaska’s News Source, “that we work, live and play here in the community, and that we add to the vivaciousness and the vibrance of the community.

“It’s time to celebrate that.”

The month-long celebrations ramp up June 23 with the Bear Tooth Film Festival that will include movies that Harrier says represent queer communities.

Harrier said the Rainbow Run is also part of the festivities on June 24.

The parade kicks off June 28 at 11:30 a.m. in downtown Anchorage and will end with the festival on the Delaney Park Strip and will include food trucks, vendors, and performances from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

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