Highlights of Bend Pride
Bend Pride 2027
Hotels around Bend
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About Bend
Bend in Central Oregon celebrates Pride twice a year: in June with a whole series of events, and in early March with Winter PrideFest. For a city of its size, that is a remarkable scene.
It started small. Only about a dozen people came to the first Pride gathering in Bend, a picnic in McKay Park. Backed by the Human Dignity Coalition, which works for equality for LGBTQ people in Central Oregon, it grew into the Central Oregon Pride Celebration. After a stop at Riverbend Park, it moved to Drake Park on the Deschutes River, where it soon drew more than a thousand people. The festival runs all day, is free and family-friendly, with music, drag, booths from nonprofits and vendors, and a dedicated kids’ zone.
Pride Month now has a full programme. There is a 5K fun run, a Roller Pride skate party and OUT on the Runway, a fashion show of handmade queer designs. The season wraps up with a parade.
Winter PrideFest, run by OUT Central Oregon, is a ski weekend with drag shows, all-ages dance parties and an après-ski pool party at the Campfire Hotel, a gay-owned hotel that serves as the social hub of the local scene.
Much of queer social life in Bend is tied to sport and the outdoors, such as the monthly Queer Climb Night at Bend Rock Gym. Pride here fits naturally outside, by the river and in the mountains.
Bend Pride – frequently asked questions
From the magazine
Magnus Hirschfeld and His Institute: What Was Lost on 6 May 1933
Long before Stonewall, Berlin had a place where homosexual people found advice and recognition. How the Institute for Sexual Science began and why it was destroyed in 1933.
Harvey Milk and Proposition 6: The November 1978 Victory
In 1978 a California ballot measure would have forced queer teachers out of public schools. Harvey Milk fought it, and voters rejected it. What happened and what it has to do with Pride.
Brenda Howard and the Pride Week: Who Turned a Memorial March into a Tradition
After Stonewall, a march marked the anniversary in 1970, and later a whole week. Brenda Howard is named as one of the people behind it. What is documented and where the title Mother of Pride stays disputed.