Houston LGBT Pride Festival & Parade

Yes, they did it! I’m so happy that the Pride Festival & Parade moved to Downtown. For Houston being the 4^th largest city in United States, we finally have a world-​class facility to host this annual event.
I personally didn’t care for the Montrose location. So, I didn’t miss the chuckholed streets and dilapidated sidewalks. The downtown location is much better and it has plenty of parking facilities along Main Street Metro Rail line. The modem buildings added characteristic as a backdrop to the Houston’s festivities.
Being a planner to march in the parade, I gained so much knowledge from the festival organizer through the process. I could see the intensity of this event made a great impact in the LGBT community. The official count of 700,000 people attended this year’s festivity. Wow. That’s a lot of people.
Compared to other pride festivities, Houston’s festival happens during the day and the parade happens after sunset. Yes, it was hot and humid. The reflection pond at Hermann Square Park was a great relief for celebrants in the afternoon heat. Along with the live performers, everyone started to dance or acting silly (watch my video on the app). Thanks to Houston Wave and nightclubs in Montrose to arrange free transportation to/​from the parade.
I asked myself, why hasn’t there a pride festival page in Houston already. It’s been over 37 years, there should be a page for people to write about their experiences. Ahem, there you go.

Having only last year’s festival in Montrose as reference, I can say this year’s event was similar for me. This year though, I only attended the Estelle concert, thanks to social media letting me know she was performing here. However, they said she would be on the Bud Light Stage at Walker and Smith, so I waited there for about 30 minutes before I realized there was another larger stage, that also said «Bud Light» on it, where she was actually performing. I missed about 2 of her songs. Not a whole lot of people seemed to be watching her perform though, which was a little surprising. Most people seemed to be doing their own thing.
After the concert, I stopped by a few of the booths on the way back to the car. I didn’t win any great prizes, but I had a good time. Since I came alone, I skipped the parade at 830 pm altogether.

One issue — wheelchair accessible toilets. Asked repeatedly during the days leading up to the parade if wheelchair accessible toilets would be available and, if so, where they would be sited. Did not get an answer, so I was unable to commit to the parade. During lineup, they showed a friend of mine where it was. Too little too late. So, having missed only one parade since 1980 I was forced to miss one of the more meaningful ones. This truly Sucks THERE IS NO EXCUSE. Shame on you Pride Committee.