Milwaukee, WI – Wednesday, February 15, 2022 – Milwaukee Pride, Inc. – parent organization of PrideFest, Wisconsin’s largest LGBTQ+ event announced PrideFest will return to Henry Maier Festival Park to kick off Milwaukee’s festival season June 1-3, 2023. The long-standing June festival was canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic but returned with record breaking attendance numbers in June of 2022. This year’s festival marks the 35th edition of PrideFest and the 26th PrideFest held in June. The event moved to the park in 1996. This year’s festival will be a three-day event running Thursday-Saturday, June 1-3, 2023.
“I can’t believe we’re already announcing our 2023 dates! It seems like yesterday our city was celebrating our return to Henry Maier festival park last June,” said Wes Shaver, President, Milwaukee Pride, Inc. “Coming off the heels of a successful 2022 festival, where it felt like everyone was cheering us on, I couldn’t be more excited for what’s in store for this year’s event. The lasting energy coming off 2022’s event pushed myself and our entire team to get working early- we’ve already inked our headlining entertainment! (but no spoilers at this time)” he added.
PrideFest’s footprint and layout will be like the 2022 festival; expanding the revamped and reimagined footprint of the festival grounds that now includes five new stages, food vendor buildings, an expanded Health & Wellness area, children’s & family programing and more. The festival will use the north part of the park spanning from the Midgate all the way north, offering new experiences for the festival guest. As always, PrideFest will include a dedicated fireworks display over Lake Michigan.
Festival goers will have much to look forward to with an ever-growing lineup of diverse entertainment with a hyper focus on local and regional acts. The festival’s five stages seek to include well over 500 entertainers throughout the weekend. The festival’s SKYYLine Mainstage returns along with the Dance Pavilion, home to Wisconsin’s largest outdoor dance party that includes thousands of festival attendees.
To support community partners and service providers, Milwaukee Pride Inc. has named longtime festival supporter Vivent Health as this year’s community partner and beneficiary of several fundraising efforts such as ticket promotions, a food drive, raffles, contest, and more. Milwaukee Pride is dedicated to amplifying the work of organizations that further bolster the importance of LGBTQ+ people living purposeful, healthy, and happy lives.
Milwaukee Pride proudly welcomes back Hotel & Hospitality partner Marcus Hotels & Resorts as the official hotel partner of the festival. The partnership, founded in 2022 creates unique opportunities for travelers to experience Marcus Hotels properties that further support the festival’s mission of creating warm, welcoming, hospitable, and safe spaces for people to enjoy.
“It’s imperative that we have a hospitality partner that believes in AND supports our desire to create positive, long-lasting impressions of Milwaukee, our festival and the people that help make it such an inclusive place to live, work and play said Wes Shaver. “Believe it or not, it’s a daunting task for some folks to travel and visit new cities- there’s so much uncertainly about a local culture and the social fabric they’re about to experience. I’m so proud of the dedicated people at Marcus Hotels for their above and beyond efforts to create such a positive first impression to those visiting us,” he added.
PrideFest also proudly welcomes back partners MolsonCoors Brewing Company, General Beverage Distributing Company, and Vivent Health as committed parties as of February 15, 2023.
Milwaukee Pride Inc. is working diligently on festival programming and planning and folks are encouraged to follow on social media for daily updates as well as pridefest.com for ticket information, show schedules and more as they’re announced.
Organizers will announce acts, programming, and online ticket sales in the weeks to come.
For more information, please contact Wes Shaver at [email protected] or call 718-962-5639. Follow Milwaukee Pride on Facebook and Instagram for daily updates.
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