How To Celebrate Pride In Seattle

Pride Month is in full swing, and if you're lucky enough to live in Seattle, you have plenty of ways to celebrate all of June. In addition to hosting PrideFest, the largest free Pride festival in North America, the Emerald City boasts a month-long lineup of exciting and diverse events for everyone. Culminating with the Seattle Pride Parade and 10th annual PrideFest on June 26, Seattle's Pride Month features everything from street fairs to special film features to comedy specials to Pride parties.

Seattle kicked off its Pride Month festivities with a celebration of LGBTQ arts, performance, and culture in Volunteer Park on June 11. The event, which used to be the Pride Picnic, has been rebranded as a kid and adult event, where guests enjoyed vintage fair lawn games, curated artist booths, local food trucks, a beer garden, and live performances from Seattle artists. Next up is the Twist of Pride Film Festival, launching with Ziggy Stardust and running through June 19. Over the next couple of weeks, local entertainment venues like Theatresports Comedy Improv, The Rendezvous, and Chop Suey will also be hosting special Pride nights and performances. So if you're a Seattlelite, get out your calendar and read on to see some of the many ways you can be celebrating Pride all month long.

Dine with Pride

Now through June 26, the city will be hosting Dine With Pride, a program where 22 LGBTQ-friendly restaurants are serving up special prix-fixe menus and deals.

June 1-29, Various locations

Twist of Pride Film Festival

The Twist of Pride Film Festival, which lasts through June 19, will showcase 12 selected LGBTQ-interest works, highlighting the best of last year's Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, the 20th anniversary screening of Crocodile Tears, and the world premieres of Brides To Be and Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures. The film festival will also feature art activism and AIDS survivors panels, costume contests, and a night celebrating Seattle filmmakers.

June 15-19, Various locations, $10.00-12.00

Theatreports Comedy Improv: Pride Night

This long-running late-night improv comedy show will be cracking jokes in honor of Seattle Pride. Buy tickets here.

June 17, Unexpected Productions' Market Theater, $15.00

Seattle Women's Pride Party

The Pride party in Seattle for lesbians and friends, the event starts promptly at 6 p.m. for a night full of music, dancing, snacks, refreshments, and swag, as well as laughs with the comedian Dana Goldberg headlining.

June 18 6 p.m. - close, Q Nightclub, $30.00 General Admission, $45.00 VIP, Festival Passes can be used for entry

Let Your Love Shine: A Queer Benefit For Orlando

This fundraiser dance party, soundtracked by DJ sets featuring soul and R&B, invites everyone from the LGBTQ community and their friends to honor the victims of the shooting at Pulse in Orlando and celebrate the strength and beauty of intersectional communities. All proceeds from the event will be donated to Equality Florida's fund benefitting the victims of violence. Buy tickets here.

June 22 9 p.m. - 2 a.m., Neumos, $10.00

Exposed: A Night of Stand Up Comedy

Get ready for a night of laughter and fun when you witness "some of the best Stand-up comics come head to head with some of the fiercest Drag Queens of the Pacific Northwest." Erik Taylor, Washington State Mr. Leather 2014, hosts this hilarious affair, featuring some of the brightest stars of the LGBTQ community bringing their talents together to raise money for the Bailey-Boushay House, the nation's first HIV/AIDS hospice. Buy tickets here.

June 23 8-10 p.m. (doors open at 7 p.m.), The Rendezvous, $20.00 suggested donation

Cathy Disco! at Chop Suey

Join in a nightlong celebration of Pride with fellow Seattleites taking in visual art and installations, photography, and music by Cathedral Queens: Cucci Binaca + Amoania and Stranger Disco DJs: Vera Rubin, Stormy Roxx, Sappho. Buy tickets here.

June 23 9 p.m. - close, Chop Suey, $12.00

Trans Pride Seattle

The Gender Justice League is hosting a Trans Pride march followed by a celebration, in and around Cal Anderson Park in Capitol Hill.

June 24 5 p.m., Cal Anderson Park, Free

Capitol Hill Pride

Gather all weekend at Capitol Hill Pride to enjoy live acts on the festival's main stage, local food trucks and beer garden, and an arts and crafts fair. From 1-4 p.m. on Saturday, PrideFest hosts a special Family Pride event, complete with Drag Queen Storytime and countless kid activities and entertainment.

June 25-26, 10 a.m. - 11 p.m.; 10 a.m. - 7 p.m., Sound Transit Light Rail Lot and Denny Festival Street, Free

Seattle Pride Parade

Each year on the last Sunday of June, the Seattle Pride Parade marches through downtown Seattle and is followed by the PrideFest at the Seattle Center. This year, for its 42nd march, the event lands on the anniversary of the legalization of same-sex marriage in the U.S. The 2016 is The Future Of Pride, honoring all who are continuing to fight for equality. Starting at 9:30 a.m. and continuing throughout the duration of the parade, you can visit one of the three Pride beer gardens, located along 4th Avenue at Pine Street (Westlake Park), Bell Street, and Clay Street.

June 26 11 a.m., Downtown Seattle starting at 4th Ave., Free

Pride Fest Seattle Center

After the parade, gather at the Seattle Center for the 10th annual PrideFest, the largest free Pride festival in the country, whose space-themed slogan this year is "To Equality And Beyond." Actress Candis Cayne headlines the event, and the festival also features returning favorites including Cazwel and RuPaul's Drag Race contestant Robbie Turner, as well as Mama Tits. Join your fellow Seattleites in celebrating pride enjoying live music, dancing, famous food truck dining, shopping, and even cooling off by playing in the fountain.

June 26, 12-8 p.m., Seattle Center, Free

Images: SeattlePride/Instagram (5); Twist of Pride Film Festival, Exposed: A Night of Stand up Comedy, Cathy Disco! at Chop Suey, Trans Pride Seattle