Celebrating Honolulu Pride Festival
Celebrating Pride is an exciting event for everyone in the LGBT+ community. It amounts to a massive city-wide party celebrating the history, culture, and future of the LGBT+ community that usually takes over June in most locales, but other places have different days of celebration. Some Pride celebrations often take place in October, such as Honolulu Pride, effectively doubling your chance at a Pride celebration. If you’re going to travel for a Pride celebration, there’s no better destination than Honolulu in the great state of Hawaii.
Honolulu Pride usually takes place throughout the month of October, with the Parade and Festival events happening around the third weekend of the month. The whole city will be packed with celebration, and despite its late placement in the year, it’s usually warm and sunny like any other day on Hawaii’s island paradise. Each day leading up to the Honolulu Pride festival has events from smaller parties to larger performances, including several workshops and benefits. You can easily schedule your vacation in Hawaii around the weeklong LGBTQ events as well as all of the other tourist hotspots the city and the islands have to offer.
Honolulu Pride is packed with events, performances, and of course, the parade. The festival begins at noon and continues until 6pm that evening when the official after party begins at Hula’s Bar and Lei Stand. The parade progresses along Waikiki and through the city, starting early at 11 AM. The Hawaii LGBT Legacy Foundation has an itinerary for this year’s events. This includes the possibility of getting all-access passes to Pride events, which gets you a Pride shirt, discounts at many of the vendors who are participating, and free entry to several events like the white party. The entire path of the parade is lined with rainbow banners of each sponsor that makes the festival possible, showing a loud and clear message to the city that the LGBT+ community is proud to be there and celebrate.
Pride is just one of the reasons to head to this Hawaiin island. There are many things to do in Honolulu, from sightseeing and beaches to museums and historical sites. Oahu, the island Honolulu is on, has several commercial beaches for relaxation, surfing, and other activities not far from the city itself. You can make a day trip out of it or visit for just an hour or two, since these are so close to each other, and to Honolulu city. You can see the sunset on the eponymous Sunset Beach or stick with the ever-popular Waikiki Beach, which has its own boardwalks and attractions within walking distance of hotels that line the shore. There are many exciting things to do in Oahu Hawaii to keep you entertained for days.
For those people traveling to Hawaii who don’t want to spend their entire lead-up to Honolulu Pride lounging in the sand, Honolulu and the rest of Oahu have several museums and historical sites to tour. Iolani Palace is the historic home turned museum of the last monarchs of Hawaii before its annexation by the United States. The city is also home to the Honolulu Museum of Art, for those with a more educational and art-inclined visit in mind. If you’ve got more time to spend while anticipating the Pride festival, you can even take day trips to the other islands and experience locales like Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Helicopter tours and mountain ascents are offered, and it’s one of the few locations in the world where you can actually see flowing lava.
Though for most, if you’re coming to Honolulu for Pride, you’re coming for the party. Honolulu’s nightlife is aimed at visitors who want to have the best island nights of their lives. As mentioned before, Hula’s Bar and Lei Stand is hosting the after party for Pride, but there’s no reason why you can’t see the place before then. Check out other gay bars in Honolulu, like Bacchus, a wine bar with a little more relaxed atmosphere if you don’t want to burn out before the festivities. The whole city is also packed with LGBT-friendly cafes and restaurants. The Honolulu Pride event even has an official Party Bus Pub Crawl that you can get in on, hitting all the best bars and clubs in one sweep for a well-liquored Pride.
Honolulu is a city built on tourism, adventure, and the excitement of a party and it is the perfect location for a Pride festival and vacation rolled into one. You can escape the impending Autumn and prolong your Summer fun with a visit timed around this October festival. The Honolulu Pride festival and the city have everything for people of all walks of life, so there’s no need to feel like you have to be a pub crawler or party animal to participate. Pride in Honolulu is unlike any other on the mainland, and with it being in October, now you can double-dip on LGBT+ Pride.
Looking for cheap hotels in Honolulu for pride? Book here to get your discount:
Author Bio:
Jayson is a writer from Phoenix, Arizona that is passionate about traveling on a budget. Being a broke writer, Jayson soon learned that if he wants to travel he needs to find the best deals. He loves sharing his experiences and tips in hopes of helping people travel the world.
LinkedIn: linkedin
Instagram: Instagram
Like Why You Should Visit Honolulu Pride? Pin it!
