This year’s Long Beach Pride Festival has been canceled due to permit issues, the city of Long Beach announced Friday.
The three-day event was expected to start at 5 p.m. Friday, bringing thousands of people together for one of the city’s largest celebrations of the LGBTQ+ community. All other planned Pride events, including the parade, are expected to continue as scheduled, according to the city.
“Unfortunately, one event, the Long Beach Pride Festival, will not be able to take place this year as sufficient information to safely permit the event has not been made available by the event organizers,” the city said in a statement.
The city attorney sent a cease and desist letter to the organizers Friday afternoon. It says the festival failed to submit the required application materials and supporting documentation in a timely manner.
However, Long Beach Pride’s president Tonya Martin said all the paperwork was submitted on time.
“Long Beach Pride is deeply disappointed by the City of Long Beach’s decision to cancel the Long Beach Pride Festival, a long-standing community institution that has stood for more than four decades as a symbol of visibility, resilience, belonging, and equality,” Martin wrote in a statement.
The Pride Parade is set to kick off Sunday at 10 a.m.
Organizers are calling on the city to find a path forward to bring the festival back.
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