Moving OC Pride out of DTSA is a terrible mistake

Orange County’s adored LGBTQ Pride Festival and Parade is packing up and leaving homey Downtown Santa Ana for the buttoned-up OC Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa.

As a Santanero and someone who’s been attending the festival for several years, finding out about the move on Instagram felt like getting dumped over social media. Not only did it sting, it didn’t make much sense. Moving out of DTSA is only a taste of the board’s questionable decisions this year, opting for a corporate makeover instead of keeping the festival where it’s welcome.

For the past 14 years, Fourth Street has been the soul of this event. The cluster of eclectic stores, rainbow murals and straight-up Chicanismo perfectly capture the spirit of our queer community. Since being in DTSA the event has become notably bilingual, featuring both English and Spanish performances. Moving the venue to Costa Mesa could easily throw off the balance between both cultures.

If cutting out the birthplace of our county’s pride event isn’t enough, this year’s OC Pride will begin charging $20 per entry. Are these new changes simply a way to expand, or is it a means to “clean up” the image of OC Pride, moving to a city with less poverty and more polish? With all of these sudden changes, it’s hard not to think that the organization’s board might be doing this on purpose.

The move from the streets to closed-off fairgrounds contradicts pride’s original purpose: Announcing to the public that we are not going to hide to make you comfortable. I understand the safety concern, but there are haters prowling around at any pride festival, and yet we’ve learned to laugh at them and kiss in their faces (albeit, with pepper spray in our hands).

If expansion is the legitimate reason for the move, then there has to be a better venue. The OC Fairgrounds must be expensive to rent out, but I imagine that they could hold a cheaper festival in the Angel Stadium parking lot, the Great Park, maybe even the swap meet grounds at Orange Coast College. If we’re gonna move, at least make the prices reasonable. Some of us can hardly afford rent this month.

To make things worse, the festival isn’t even in June anymore—but four months later. October is technically LGBTQ History month, but it’s a risky move. Outside of those who follow its Instagram handle, who’s going to know that OC Pride now takes place a couple weeks before Halloween? Somebody has to be getting fired this year.

I was in contact with Manny Muro, the Vice President of the OC Pride board, but he stopped responding after I requested an interview about the big move (interesting, right?). Despite the online buzz, there is currently no official statement on behalf of the board as to why the event is moving cities, charging patrons, and changing months starting this year.

Luckily, this year, Santa Ana’s SoulFireDance, a burlesque dance studio, hosted a Santa Ana Pride celebration in the arts district, free of charge. Although the event is reduced down to a small plaza in the arts district, it will probably be a more accessible option for those with unreliable transportation or financial restraints next summer.

If any of this has you feeling irked, consider telling the board how you feel. If enough of us make our voices heard, they might revise some of their decisions for 2025.

If OC Pride can’t stay true to its roots, then I think it’s time that we plant new ones.