Houston's New Faces of Pride 2024

I love to try new things, especially supporting my community. I haven't been to an LGBT Pride festival since C0V!D, I was anxious to go out and be myself in the crowd. I heard about an event on June 22 from the Houston Bears. I became very curious and I wanted to check out the Houston's New Faces of Pride Festival and Parade. 

I came early to mingle with people

I knew there would be hassle to buy admission at the door. So, I bought mine online. I thought $3 was very reasonable plus service fee $2.04. I wouldn't mind paying $5-10 for it. I arrived at 12:30pm as the event started at noon. I got my early-bird trinkets from HP and other well-known companies. I checked the main entrance every hour on the hour. I saw steady amount of people came in. Not too busy. I got a chance to mingle with the food trucks and patronize them without lines. 

Timeline during New Faces of Pride Festival 2024

As the festival went on, more people showed up. I began to notice larger crowd started around 4 pm as I was leaving. A good thing about this festival is that I can come back in with the proof of stamp on my arm. I actually went back to my car taking a break before reporting back for my volunteering duty at 5:30 pm. When I returned to the festival site, there were pretty busy in front of the city hall. That was a little chaotic as the exhibitors were leaving and festivalgoers still coming in. 

The Parade Ending Point of New Faces of Pride 2024

I was assigned to the parade ending point with Lori, a board member for the New Faces of Pride, and 2 other volunteers. We helped to separate the walkers from the vehicle route. At times, police crew had to help us to disperse large crowd from the intersection. From looking at my watch, I documented the time of the beginning of parade at 7:48 pm and the end of parade at 8:28pm. Most people from the parade asked, "is that all for the parade?" Not sure if they thought the parade should be longer. 

Fabulous people at Houston's New Faces of Pride 2024 

Overall, I thought it was a well-planned event from noon to 8-ish. I believe the party already ended before the last float went by the VIP stage. Congratulations to New Faces of Houston Pride for the inaugural year. I think I have a better idea on how to promote this event next year.

For those people who are curious about why Houston has 2 pride festivities, here are a couple of articles I would like to share:
https://www.houstoniamag.com/news-and-city-life/2024/06/houston-two-pride-parades
https://houstonlanding.org/houston-will-have-two-pride-parades-city-officials-say-there-should-be-one/

Oh, by the way, I parked about 3/4 mile away at a $5 lot at 1700 Travis St. It allowed 6 hour limit.