Pride Party Ideas for Home, Not Just the Parade
The parade is the easy part. The parts people remember are the breakfast before and the collapse afterward, and almost nobody plans either.
- The pre-parade breakfast is the most underrated event of the day and the easiest to host.
- Plan the after party, because everybody needs somewhere to go at five and almost nobody organizes it.
- Not everyone wants a parade. A quiet gathering for people who find crowds difficult is a real and useful thing to host.
- Ask before you photograph anyone. Not everybody at a Pride event is out to everybody in their life.
- Decoration is cheap and easy here, so put the effort into who is invited instead.
Pride weekend is well supplied with events and badly supplied with the two that actually make it a good day: somewhere to start, and somewhere to end up.
Both are easy to host and neither requires a parade route.
The breakfast before
This is the best party of Pride weekend and hardly anybody runs one.
Ask people to yours from about nine. Coffee, pastries, eggs if you feel like it, and a floor covered in people getting ready. Everybody arrives half-dressed, borrows each other's things, does each other's makeup, and leaves for the parade as a group rather than as fourteen individuals trying to find each other by text in a crowd.
It costs very little, it takes two hours, and it changes the whole day, because arriving somewhere with people is a completely different experience from arriving alone and looking for them.
Practical notes: have more mirrors available than you think, have safety pins, and have a bag people can leave things in, because everybody overpacks and then carries it for six hours.
The after party nobody plans
At about five in the afternoon, a large number of people are tired, sunburnt, slightly deaf and standing in the street with nowhere to go. The choice is usually a very loud bar or going home.
A third option is somebody's flat with the door open, food that does not require cooking, and somewhere to sit down. It is the least glamorous idea in this guide and it is consistently the part of the day people talk about afterward.
Order more food than you think and get it early, because delivery times on that particular evening are appalling in every city I have tried it in.
The version for people who do not want a parade
Worth saying plainly: a lot of people find the parade genuinely difficult. Crowds, noise, alcohol, being photographed, or simply not being out to everybody in their life.
Hosting something quiet during Pride is not a lesser event. A dinner, a film, a walk, an afternoon in a garden. The gathering that some people are actually hoping for is the one that is small enough to talk in.
If you host both, do not schedule them against each other, and do not describe the quiet one as the alternative. It is just the other one.
Ask before you photograph
This is the etiquette point that matters most and it gets missed constantly.
Not everybody at a Pride event is out to everybody in their life. A photograph posted publicly can out somebody to a colleague, a parent or an employer, and the person posting it will usually never know that it happened.
So ask, and ask specifically: is it all right if this goes online. That is a different question from is it all right if I take this, and it is the one that matters.
If you are running a group chat for the day, that is a good place to say once, at the start, that anyone can ask for a photo to come down with no explanation required.
Decoration is the easy part
Rainbow anything is cheap and everywhere in June, which means decoration is a solved problem and you should spend your effort elsewhere.
Two things I would do instead. Make one thing yourself, because a hand-painted sign carries something a bought banner does not. And put a note somewhere about which flags are which, if your group spans a few identities, since a lot of people are quietly unsure and would rather not ask.
The general hosting checklist is on the party ideas hub, and birthday party themes for adults has more on themes people will actually follow.
Food and drink, briefly
Everything on the table should be edible standing up and with one hand. That is the whole rule for a day that involves getting ready, going out, coming back and not really sitting down until eight.
The other thing worth planning is a genuinely good non-alcoholic option, made with the same care as everything else rather than a bottle of something orange at the back. A significant number of people at any Pride gathering are not drinking, for a range of reasons that are nobody else's business, and the difference between an afterthought and a proper drink is noticed.
Water, in quantity, somewhere obvious. It is a long day, usually a hot one, and the host who puts out a jug and glasses is doing more for the evening than the one who bought bunting.
Who is invited
This is where the effort should go. The best Pride gatherings I have been to had a wider guest list than the host's immediate friends, and included at least one person who did not have anywhere obvious to go. We wrote what to write in a pride card or a coming out card for Pride on its own.
That is worth thinking about deliberately, and it is worth a message that says: come, bring anybody, there is room. The person who most needs a room full of people is rarely the one who asks.
If somebody in your group has recently come out, there is more on that in what to say when someone comes out, and Pride gift ideas has thoughts on marking it without making a production of it.
One moment in the middle
If the gathering is for somebody in particular, a song about them played once, late, does more than any decoration. That is what we make at Ditty City so treat it accordingly, and personalized song gift ideas is the honest version.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best thing to host during Pride?
The breakfast before the parade, which almost nobody runs. Ask people over from about nine for coffee and pastries, let everybody get ready together, then leave as a group. Arriving somewhere with people is a completely different day from arriving alone and trying to find them by text.
What do people do after the parade?
Usually a very loud bar or going home, which is why the after party nobody plans is worth being the person who plans it. Somebody flat, the door open, food that needs no cooking and somewhere to sit down. Order the food early, because delivery times that evening are terrible.
Can I take photos at a Pride event?
Ask first, and ask the right question. Is it all right if this goes online is different from is it all right if I take this. Not everybody at a Pride event is out to everybody in their life, and a public photo can out someone to a parent or employer without the poster ever knowing.
What if someone does not want to go to the parade?
Host something quiet instead, and do not describe it as the alternative. Crowds, noise, alcohol and being photographed are genuine reasons to skip a parade, and a dinner or an afternoon in a garden is the gathering some people are actually hoping for.
How should I decorate for a Pride party?
Barely. Rainbow decoration is cheap and everywhere in June, so it is a solved problem. Make one thing by hand, which carries something a bought banner does not, and put the rest of your effort into the guest list, which is where the difference actually is.