Loring Park: Pride Festival, Diversity and Parades

Loring Park: Pride Festival, Diversity and Parades. . , Old Pink Flamingo entrance of the 19 Bar, circa 1970, Loring Park is host to many of Minnesota's festivals and parades. Since 1972, Loring Park has hosted The Twin Cities GLBT Pride Festival. The Pride Festival occurs in June to commemorate the founding of the gay rights movement in America. The festival consists of a parade and an arts and entertainment festival in the park. Loring Park neighborhood has a long history of being the first stop on a new life in Minneapolis for many GLBT young people with high hopes for a better future in the big city. Since 1952 the oldest extant gay bar in the United States, the 19 bar, has been serving cold beers and a game of pool to residents and newcomers alike., Other parades such as the Minneapolis Aquatennial's night-time parade down Hennepin is a site [sic] to see and in winter there's the twinkle of the Holidazzle parade down Nicollet Avenue during the holiday season., Art is never far as evidenced by the neighborhood's creative culture, unique restaurants and the Loring Park Arts Festival in August., Image Source: In the Shadow of the City, A History of the Loring Park Neighborhood. Text Source: In the Shadow of the City, A History of the Loring Park Neighborhood.