Better clear your schedule, because Editor in Chief Aaron is here this week to tell us about some unique events being held around the world this Pride month (and beyond).

Happy Pride, all you Trivia Mafioids out there!

Not that drag brunches, karaoke, dance parties, and parades aren’t awesome, because they are — and many of us are lucky enough to have events like that in our own backyards. But because Pride, at its heart, is about gathering disparate threads to celebrate our differences and our commonalities in all their messy, imperfect beauty, I thought this week we’d look beyond the conventional. Here are a few of the more offbeat, unique events being held across the globe and the country this year during Pride:

Up first, the biggest one: São Paulo, Brazil, holds what most — including Guinness World Records — consider to be the world’s biggest Pride parade. Three to five million people descend on the famously LGBTQ+-friendly city for weeks of events leading up to the parade, and the events bring in more money than freakin’ Carnival. It’s a big, big deal. This year’s parade falls on June 22.
Amsterdam is home to over 60 miles of canals, so naturally, they throw their parade there instead. Every year, I find myself browsing through the many, many photos of the event, because it’s one of the most visually stunning parades there is, full stop. Things begin there July 26.
Closer to home, there’s of course NYC Pride, one of our country’s biggest and oldest, in the very same locale that brought us the Stonewall uprising. But if cramming in among the two-million-plus crowd isn't your thing, might I suggest a nice quiet historical walking tour through that very Greenwich neighborhood? The hour-long tour has stops at Christopher Park, Stonewall Inn, the visitor center, and “all other sites of LGBTQ historical significance.” It goes year-round.
Do you love rodeo? Kinda? Then you’ll love gay rodeo! Since the ’80s, the Colorado Gay Rodeo Association has been hosting the Rocky Mountain Regional Rodeo in Denver. They’ve got rodeo events you’d expect, like barrel racing and steer riding, plus more niche interests, like the Wild Drag Race, and something called Goat Dressing, which involves putting a pair of underpants on a goat. As you might expect, they’ve also got just the best collection of vintage event posters. It’s going on July 11 to 13.
Grand Rapids, Michigan, claims the World’s Smallest Pride Parade, whose route last year was a single alleyway in the Creston neighborhood. This gathering seems to have gained steam in the last year, with actual sponsors, a roster of drag performers, and a brass band expected for 2025. (Journalistic integrity demands that I tell you that Creston’s “World’s Smallest” claim is contested; there’s an identical assertion made by organizers in England, who have their own 80-meter route in Batt Close, Rochberie Heights, Rugby, Warwickshire, West Midlands — which is an actual place, and not just something from a British fever dream.) Creston’s parade is September 8.
I was a little disappointed to find that a quick Googling for “PRIDE BAKE OFF” only produced one real result. (And zero chili cook-offs!) So, hats off to State College, Pennsylvania for giving the people (me) what they want (bake-offs). That’s June 21, part of the greater Centre County Pride slate of events, which also includes…
…Pet stuff! Centre County is holding a Pets + Pride photo contest, and while this is the first event of its kind I’ve come across, Pride Pet events are poppin’ off everywhere — as they should be, because they’re adorable. Just a few of the cities where they’re happening are Berkeley, Chicago, D.C., Indianapolis, Manhattan, and Puerto Vallarta.

On its surface, there’s nothing terribly unusual about the Pride events going on in Bisbee, Arizona: there’s a parade, an Elton John impersonator, a pool party, and a doggy drag show (more pets!). Bisbee itself is a weensy little mining town of fewer than 5,000 people in southeastern Arizona, about 10 miles from the Mexican border. What’s interesting about it is that Bisbee was the first town in Arizona to pass a civil union ordinance, several years before nationwide marriage equality, and during the extremely anti-LGBTQ+ regime of governor and cartoon villain Jan Brewer, whose attorney general also threatened to sue the city in response. Good for Bisbee! Stuff is happening there this weekend.

If most Pride events are just too dry-land for your liking, check out Ft. Lauderdale’s Floatarama, which bills itself as “America’s Largest On-Water Pride Fundraiser,” benefiting South Florida LGBTQ+ Youth. It really does look like a lot of fun, and it’s definitely the only place I’ve seen the words “flotilla” and “tea dance” mentioned in the same paragraph. It’s happening June 21.
Where geeks and Pride collide, you’ll find Sacramento’s “Queer Multiverse,” a cosplay-friendly night market for the fantasy, sci-fi, anime, and gamer crowd. In my experience, there are few subcultures as fervently LGBTQ+ friendly as the geeky ones, so here’s a place for your inner bisexual tiefling bard to sip on some wine and check out vendors and collectibles. It’s going on June 27.
And who says Pride events have to include club bangers and sweaty crowds? For the more serene among you, and closer to Trivia Mafia World Headquarters, there’s Nature Gays in the Woods, a day of bushwacking through Battle Creek Regional Park to learn about animal spoor, foraging edible mushrooms and plants, and all things woodsy. It’s coming up next Tuesday.
Finally: Disney adults, don’t think I’d forget you! On the official side, Disneyland After Dark throws two Pride Nite events on June 16 and 18. Unofficially, Gay Days has been going on since 1991, when LGBTQ+ folks organized groups to descend on the Magic Kingdom wearing red shirts in order to stand out and call attention to their numbers. Orlando’s Gay Days was this past weekend, but Anaheim’s fall in September, so there’s still time for you to don red, yank on those Mickey ears, and get out there.