ABOVE: Pride Fort Lauderdale’s Pride of the Americas team marches at WorldPride. Photo via Pride Fort Lauderdale’s Facebook page.
Fort Lauderdale, Fla. | The Greater Fort Lauderdale area will host the inaugural Pride of the Americas on April 21-26, 2020, organizers have shared.
Pride of the Americas will be presented by Pride Fort Lauderdale, the oldest Pride celebration in the state of Florida. The organization began in 1977 from protests after a successful public referendum to overturn a gay rights ordinance in Miami-Dade County.
Pride Fort Lauderdale attracted 40,000 people for its 40th anniversary on Fort Lauderdale Beach in 2017. Its 2019 venture welcomed nearly 100,000 attendees for the first beach-side parade in the city’s history. The Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau will serve as Pride of the Americas’ presenting sponsor.
“Greater Fort Lauderdale/Broward County is the perfect launch destination for Pride of the Americas 2020 as we are world-renowned for our open embrace of the LGBT+ community and to all visitors from across the globe,” CEO and president of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau Stacy Ritter said in a statement. “We are excited for Pride of the Americas’ attendees to experience our cosmopolitan destination, as well as our beautiful melting pot of cultures.”
“Greater Fort Lauderdale is home to a thriving LGBT+ community, and we are very much looking forward to welcoming hundreds of thousands of LGBT+ visitors and allies to our destination where diversity shines brightly,” the bureau’s senior vice president of diversity and inclusion Richard Gray added.
Watch a promo for the celebration via Pride of the Americas below:
Six days of events, which will bring together attendees from two continents and 53 nations, will begin with April 21 in downtown Fort Lauderdale with opening ceremonies. They will conclude April 26 with a beach festival and fireworks display.
Social events include an arts festival, beach party, 5K run and an array of entertainment including sunset concerts, top DJs and drag brunches. Organizers also promise fashion shows featuring designs by Bravo’s “Project Runway” alumni modeled by diverse models at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida.
“Greater Fort Lauderdale is a community that celebrates diversity and inclusion in every way, each and every day, where Pride is our daily way of life,” Pride Fort Lauderdale President Miik Martorell’s statement reads. “Pride Fort Lauderdale and the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau are committed to leveraging Pride of the Americas to strengthen the LGBT+ communities and the Pride movement in the Caribbean and Latin America.”
More than 350,000 visitors from Alaska to Argentina are expected to attend the inaugural Pride of the Americas. For more information and for a full schedule of events, visit PrideOfTheAmericas.org.
