Hundreds turn out for Palo Alto’s first Pride event

By all accounts, Palo Alto’s first Pride Month event was a resounding success.

King Plaza in front of City Hall was transformed into a sea of rainbows on Sunday afternoon, with rows of colorful pop-up tents lining the streets and hundreds of attendees (and a handful of pet dogs) adorned in pride regalia. To mark the start of the event, Mayor Vicki Veenker raised the Pride Flag to honor the LGBTQ+ community in Palo Alto.

One theme repeated by attendees was that the turnout was an unexpected delight.

Youth organizers Iris Blanchet and Alex Efremova said they began planning in October, but originally, the event was supposed to be on a much smaller scale with a narrow focus on LGBTQ+ youth. They said they were motivated by the “unfavorable national environment” toward the LGBTQ+ community that put additional strain on queer youth mental health.

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