As Washington, D.C., has been celebrating Capital Pride this weekend, trumpets blaring for WorldPride 2025, coming this time next year, have been impossible to avoid.The Capital Pride Alliance, responsible for overseeing the annual Pride festivities, frequently mentions WorldPride in nearly every press release it issues.This year’s Capital Pride Parade, Festival, and Concert — not to mention specially themed dance parties, brunches, pool parties, and even unofficial celebrations at the city’s various LGBTQ nightlife venues — are serving as a kind of run-through for WorldPride.Organizers are putting in place a basic framework for accommodating up to 3 million visitors looking for places throughout the city to socialize, drink, dance, flirt, eat, and pillow their heads over a three-week-long period from mid-May to early June. “This year is a practice run,” says Bernie Delia, co-chair along with June Crenshaw, of the WorldPride 2025 steering committee. “We moved the parade to see how that route’s going to go, and we’ll have to make adjustments after Saturday as needed — if needed.
Everything we’re doing has all been in preparation for 2025.”The rerouting of this year’s Capital Pride Parade is the most tangible example of how organizers are planning for next year’s celebration.Instead of winding through the side streets of the city’s historically gay Dupont and Logan Circle neighborhoods, this year’s parade headed south down the bustling 14th Street corridor before hooking left on Pennsylvania Avenue NW and heading east in the direction of the U.S.
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