Visitors can celebrate diversity and mark the 20th birthday of Key West’s famed 1.25-mile sea-to-sea rainbow flag with a three-night laser light show during Key West Pride 2023 this June. Presented by the Key West Business Guild, Pride salutes the Florida Keys’ all-accepting ‘One Human Family’ mind-set on the subtropical island internationally known as a top LGBTQ holiday spot.
Toast to this special birthday from 7 to 11 June with daytime pool parties and late-night dance parties, sunset sailing excursions, theatre performances, a Pride street fair, and a high-energy parade amongst other events commemorating the creation and display of the sea-to-sea flag that became known around the world.
In 2003 Gilbert Baker, creator of the original rainbow flag that remains the international symbol of the LGBTQ community, worked with a volunteer team to construct the 1.25-mile-long rainbow flag in Key West that is believed to be the world’s longest.
Birthday festivities include:
7 June – A luncheon celebrating the creation of Baker’s Key West flag and an evening kick-off party featuring a display of a 100-foot section of the famed banner.
7 to 11 June – The celebrations continue with a three-night laser light show that re-creates the flag above Key West’s Duval Street, with its colours once again stretching the nearly 1.25-mile length of the renowned thoroughfare. Visitors can walk ‘under the rainbow’ to express their support for diversity, equality and acceptance. Other events include: a local bartender competition at the Bourbon St. Pub; an outdoor screening of the acclaimed documentary “Key West: City of Colours”; an all-day street fair Saturday followed by a disco party and dancing on Duval; the Big Gay 5k challenge for fitness buffs, and a traditional tea dance at La Te Da nightclub.
11 June – See a 100-foot section of Baker’s 2003 flag take centre stage in the 2023 Pride Parade through Key West’s historic downtown. Spectators can view the all-welcome procession, also set to feature colourful walking groups and lavishly decorated floats, streetside or from clubs, bars and restaurants along the route. Pride’s closing ceremony will take place following the parade at the corner of Duval and Petronia streets — site of Key West’s permanent four-way rainbow crosswalk — capped by the final night of the sea-to-sea laser light show.
