SLC Pride Parade – 2022 Gallery

The Utah Pride Festival has been going on for 43 years, beginning in 1978. This year, the festival returned after a two-year pandemic hiatus. The parade went on for a little over two hours. Over the years, the parade has gotten longer with more entries and has become more and more family friendly, offering a little something for everyone.

This year there were around 200 entries and an estimated 70,000-plus attendees along the parade’s route in downtown Salt Lake City. The parade path started at 200 S. and 200 West, then continued east up to 400 E. and 700 South, ending at 200 east. Utah’s Pride Parade is one of the biggest parades in Utah and one of the nation’s more prominent Pride celebrations for its place is a relatively conservative state. If you had some skin, this was the day to show it off. Shirtless, short shorts, and fishnets for everybody. Next year I’ll go shopping.

I walked with SLUG Magazine, who had just launched their Pride LGBTQ+ Issue days before. We all wore matching purple shirts, adorned with a rainbow hugging a pair of hearts, designed by Noelle Margetts specifically for the parade (their design was also featured on SLUG’s June cover). Friends and family of SLUG Magazine walked together with a float in support of Pride as they handed out many magazine copies along the way. The crowd favorite was the drag queens on old bicycles riding in circles in front of the SLUG pack. One of the riders would say, “I love you” to the passing crowd as they rode, dressing in a bright, green dress with colorful, poofy hair not unlike a beautiful, prize poodle, with matching colors in their beard and riding a pink bike with a basket of flowers. They suddenly stopped and started hugging, taking pictures with an older lady, and as I got closer, I heard them say, “I love you, mom.”

See you next year. –JT

Photos: John Taylor // john@visionfoto.com