Phoenix Pride moves to downtown Phoenix this weekend with a shortened schedule as the organization navigates Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.
PHOENIX — The Phoenix Pride Festival returns this weekend with a new location, a shortened schedule, and questions surrounding the organization’s financial future as it continues to navigate Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.
RELATED: Phoenix Pride files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy amid financial challenges
For 45 years, Phoenix Pride has brought members of the LGBTQ+ community together to celebrate diversity, inclusion and equality. But this year’s event will look different from previous celebrations.
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Instead of its traditional two-day festival, Phoenix Pride will host a ticketed concert Saturday night, followed by a free festival Sunday at Arizona Center in downtown Phoenix.
Jeremy Helfgot, a spokesperson for Phoenix Pride, said the changes are part of an effort to combine elements of two of the organization’s signature events.
“What we’re kind of doing here is hybridizing the Rainbows Festival that we produce at Heritage Square every year, with the larger Phoenix Pride Festival, and kind of pulling the best elements from both,” Helfgot said.
The changes come just months after Phoenix Pride filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May, citing rising operational costs and a lack of sponsorships and fundraising.
When asked whether the festival’s relocation was connected to the organization’s financial troubles, Helfgot said several factors influenced the decision.
“The organization is making decisions based on a lot of different inputs, and there were a number of factors that led us here for Sunday’s festival,” Helfgot said. “And as I said, a lot of it is built on community feedback.”
The organization’s bankruptcy proceedings remain ongoing.
New court documents show a judge granted Phoenix Pride’s request to postpone a key bankruptcy hearing until December, when the court is expected to consider whether to approve the organization’s reorganization plan.
While organizers work to preserve the longstanding celebration, some members of the LGBTQ+ community are questioning whether Pride festivals carry the same significance they once did.
One longtime community member, who recalled attending Pride celebrations in the 1980s, said the events once provided an important space for people who feared openly expressing their identities.
“We’ve been around for a long time, going to all the pride festivals back in the ’80s, right when they first started, and they were necessary at the time because there were people that were afraid to be out,” the community member said. “But anymore, we’re accepted anywhere we go. We go to any bar, we go to restaurants everywhere we go. We’re accepted,” said Phoenix resident Diana Sandavol.
Others pointed to the growing number of LGBTQ+-owned businesses and community organizations that provide opportunities for connection and support throughout the year.
“They’re not needed as much anymore because, again, there are so many organizations, businesses, and, by the way, small businesses,” Mark Howard, a local business owner in the Melrose district, said. “We’re all small businesses. We’re not chains.”
The community member emphasized the role those businesses play in serving the LGBTQ+ community beyond annual celebrations.
Despite differing perspectives on the need for large-scale Pride festivals, this weekend’s event will continue a decades-long tradition in Phoenix, even as the organization faces an uncertain financial future.
Sunday’s Phoenix Pride Festival at Arizona Center is free to attend. Saturday night’s concert will require a ticket.
Phoenix Pride’s bankruptcy case remains ongoing, with a key hearing scheduled for December.
RELATED: Phoenix Pride gives LGBTQ+ community safe space to feel love, inclusion
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