Hello and happy Wednesday everybody!
A few weeks ago I got to spend some of World Pride in New York City, in my personal opinion, the greatest place in the entire universe to celebrate such a wonderful event. Going into the day, I affectionately called it operation Pride, Pickles, and Prom. I wanted to see the March, grab some of my most favorite fried pickles, and see an amazing show before it (prematurely) closes. Two out of three of these things got to happen, RIP Pickle Me Pete pickles, and I couldn’t have had a better day.
So basically, I just wanted to give a little story time since I feel like I haven’t gotten to do that in a while. And without further ado, let’s talk about June 30th, 2019.
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Every June I look forward to Pride and immediately assume I’ll spend at least one day in NYC while the celebrations resume. This year I felt the same way, but still didn’t have plans to go until a few days before. After finding out The Prom would be closing soon and confirming this was the show I should see from my college roommate, I bought tickets and made the decision to without a doubt spend the day at World Pride. Naturally, the night before I find out that James Charles will be walking in the March with the Trevor Project and have a complete meltdown because I knew I would miss him, but the show goes on and was still TONS of fun.
This year, I didn’t intend on watching too much of the March. That being said, Seth and I got to walk up and down some of the streets before it started and see all of the floats. Although we did get to see some of it, thank goodness, I really wanted to check out PrideFest this year. It was wonderful and not what I expected at all. I thought that it would largely be vendors selling LGBTQ+ inspired products but it ended up being quite a few well known companies (i.e. Zara, H&M, and Sephora) set up and giving out lots of free rainbow ridden goodies. I managed to swipe some bowls from Kellogg’s, a Pride bandana for my cutie golden retriever, and like 3 full sized tubes of toothpaste from Crest. Yeah, a weird haul, I know. And that’s not even the half of it. Zara was giving out water bottles and RED was giving away strawberry popsicles. It was really just fun to see all of the different vendors and what they decided to bring to the table. There were also a few food trucks selling trendy foods like waffle-mochi hybrids, but Seth and I decided to seek out a restaurant to beat some of the heat and try to patch up my disappointment of Pickle Me Pete’s missing tent.
We settled on a Mexican restaurant called Rosa Mexicano and shared fresh-made guacamole while waiting for our lunch. The guac was delicious and I could have cried of happiness when they set down the Churros French Toast I ordered in front of me. While the syrup they came with was a little bizzare, (or I should say authentic), the french toast was absolutely delicious and I would recommend it to anyone with a passion for breakfast and a sweet tooth.
After lunch, Seth and I caught a little bit of the Pride March while we made our way back uptown to the show. As you would expect, I saw the Trevor Project float but completely missed James. How? Who knows, but it is what it is.
By the time we made it back to the Theater District, it was time to pick up our tickets. It’s the first time I had ever gotten tickets through a website called TodayTix but I would 100% recommend them to anyone. Basically, it’s a little bit of a gamble because you aren’t picking your exact seats, and won’t even know them until like 30 minutes before the show, but it’s worth it for the price you pay. Don’t get me wrong, you get to pick the general location that you want them in (i.e. front mezzanine or side orchestra) and TodayTix does all the work for you. I only paid about $100 a ticket, which I think is a steal for a broadway show, and there were zero additional fees as well.
We picked up our tickets and right outside of the theater’s entrance and found that we were given an aisle and were the third row in the mezzanine. It really exceeded any and all expectations that I could have had.
The show soon started and I couldn’t have been more impressed. Without giving away the entire story line, it’s a show about a few washed up Broadway superstars trying to become relevant again by helping a lesbian who has shaken up a small town in Indiana by wanting to take another girl to prom. The show is absolutely hilarious, full of incredible, high energy dance routines, amazing songs, and a really important message. I would without a double encourage anyone to see the show in its final weeks. It even has an unpredictable-ness that I haven’t experienced in a Broadway show in a long time that made me love it even more.
After the show let out, Seth and I made our way back to the bus station, even though I never truly want to leave NYC. We obviously had work the next day and it would be a little bit of a drive back to Lancaster.
I wished I had gotten to see more of the March but overall would say it was an even more wonderful Pride than last year. It’s always so happy to see everyone during this weekend and all of the love everyone is both receiving and giving out freely. To me, Pride doesn’t just last throughout June, it’s year-round and I hope it is for all of you as well.
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Have any of you gotten to experience Pride? What are some of your favorite things to do and where/what cities have you celebrated in? Let me know in the comments below! And..
Until next time,
xx.Britani Skye
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