New Orleans Pride Parade to Include Memorial March

The New Orleans Pride Festival has announced that this weekend’s Pride Parade will include a memorial for the victims of the senseless mass murder that took place at a gay nightclub in Orlando on Monday. The annual parade–the largest of its kind in Louisiana–will take place Saturday, June 18.

13319918_10154279348724337_6781258274612262022_nThe memorial march will lead the parade, which is scheduled to depart from the Phoenix Bar on Elysian Fields at 7:30pm. The route will bring participants through the Marigny Triangle before taking them to Canal Street (by way of Decatur Street) and then back to Esplanade Avenue (by way of Bourbon Street).

Marchers are asked to gather at Phoenix Bar at 6:15pm, and they are encouraged to carry signs, flags, flowers or candles.

According to NOLA.com, the festival has planned a separate moment of silence and prayer to honor the victims of the massacre. The event is scheduled for 2pm Sunday on the 800 block of Bourbon Street. There will also be a moment of silence at some point during Saturday’s parade.

In addition, the New Orleans Pride Board of Directors has confirmed that it has been in contact with the NOPD and the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office about providing adequate security for the festival. Fox 8 News reports, that Mayor Mitch Landrieu has said the city is coordinating with Pride Festival organizers to ensure everyone’s safety.

As has been the case in previous years, the 2016 Pride Festival will honor the anniversary of the UpStairs Lounge arson attack, which killed 32 people at a French Quarter gay bar on June 24, 1973. Until this week, the fire was considered the single deadliest instance of anti-gay violence in American history.

On Friday, June 24–the 43rd anniversary of the attack–the New Orleans Pride Festival will host a free ticketed screening of Upstairs Inferno, a 2015 documentary that features interviews with survivors, witnesses and family members/friends of victims of the mass murder. Tickets for the screening, which is slated for 8pm at the Harrah’s Casino Theater, are now sold out.

The screening is one of many events that will take place during this year’s Pride Festival, though the vast majority are scheduled for this weekend, June 17-19. A schedule of events can be found here.