Wynwood Pride expanding festivities throughout Pride Month
MIAMI - Wynwood Pride is expanding its festivities this year to a whole month of celebrations.
The festival's organizers believe that this year's celebration needs to be more impactful than ever in light of the recent legislative changes in Florida.
"Because of all of this crazy laws and things that are happening Florida we thought what the best way to give people the most opportunities to celebrate pride this year so we decided to do a whole month long series of events and activate several venues not just throughout Wynwood but all throughout Miami," Jor'el Garcia, Wynwood Pride Co-Founder and Director said.
Garcia told CBS News Miami the enactment of laws in the state has imposed fines and penalties on businesses that admit or expose children to what is considered adult performances, including drag shows.
"We kind of from the jump established ourselves as a more music festival style, which I guess this year, unfortunately this year, it kind of saved us because there have been other Prides in Florida that have parades that had to cancel because of these laws," Garcia said.
On average, Wynwood Pride has brought 50,000 people to its previous weekend-long event.
That number is expected to rise, along with an economic impact.
"Every business here is ready for this month-long process," Manny Gonzalez, Wynwood Business Improvement District Exec. Dir. said.
"Listen we are seeing travel advisory pop up left and right and I think here in Miami-Dade County we have an incredible and unique and diverse community and culture that highlights and supports differences and that's what's unique about Miami-Dade County as oppose to different parts of the state of Florida," Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins for District 8 said.
This year the theme is "Year 5 - More Pride," and the call is to embrace and express pride more passionately than ever before.