Wave your rainbow flag at the best Pride events in San Francisco

The Castro, Roxie and other SF and Bay Area indie theaters host a wide spectrum of queer films during the International LGBTQ+ Film Festival. Premieres, parties, and panels will take place throughout Pride week. Find additional info about scheduling and tickets at frameline.org.

It wouldn’t be Pride without a performance from the country’s first out-and-proud chorus. The group will end their 41st season with QUEENS, a concert that memorializes the past, present and future of LGBTQ rights in three performances at The Sydney Goldstein Theater (formerly Nourse Theater). Tickets range from $25-99.

This annual rally, one of the largest trans events in the world, has been empowering the local and global transgender community for 15 years. The event starts with a party in Dolores Park, then marches down Market Street to Civic Center. Details TBD.

The giant triangle of pink cloth installed for the weekend at the top of Twin Peaks is one of Pride’s most public displays. The powerful symbol, which is made up of more than 175 pieces of canvas, commemorates LGBT victims of the Holocaust. Show up with a hammer and gloves to help the giant installation come to life. Free.

Honor the Grand Marshals of the Pride Parade at this rainbow brunch benefit. Eat, drink and dance with city officials and LGBTQ activists to the stylings of the Dixieland Dykes +3. Proceeds from ticket sales, as well as a raffle and silent auction, will go to the PRC, a local health and human services organization. Tickets start at $125. 

Get down with demogorgons in the big, gay Upside Down at the Rickshaw Stop. Don your best puffer vest, Eleven wig or waffle costume and dance like it’s 1983. DJs Todo Mio will be spinning new wave and 80s pop and punk at the fiercest dance party this side of Hawkins, Indiana. Tickets $11-25. 21+.

Dykes and those who love them will take over Dolores Park for the 27th year in a row in a Pride weekend rally eclipsed only by the official parade. Join thousands of supporters in an event that will include speeches from community activists, DJs and live music. The march through the Castro, 50,000 dykes strong, begins at 5pm. Free.

Wave your rainbow flag at this colorful and historic parade that draws more than 100,000 spectators to Market Street every year. The march kicks off with hundreds of Dykes on Bikes, followed by floats, musical performances and lots of scantily clad LGBTQ community members and their allies. If you’re not covered in glitter by evening, you did it wrong. Free.

When the parade is over, head to City Hall for an exclusive VIP party. Find three rooms of toe-tapping, mind-bending entertainment and dancing including the Glamamore Fashion Retrospective and Drag Cabaret, along with a bar stocked with beer, spirits, wine and, of course, champagne. Tickets $85.

Strip down to your skivvies at the Phoenix Hotel’s glamorous poolside Pride party. The annual event presented by Mighty Real will kick off at 12pm with resident DJ David Harness on the turntables. Tickets $40-70. 21+.