CBS5.com
San Francisco’s annual Pride Parade festival and celebration is scheduled to kick off Saturday at noon, bringing hundreds of thousands of attendees to the city who are expected to infuse an estimated $100 million into the local economy over the course of the two-day event and the week leading up to it, president of SF Pride’s board of directors, Joey Cain, said today.
This year marks the 36th San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Parade and Celebration, according to organizers.
“We are one of the biggest (LGBT parades) in the world,” Cain said.
SF Pride is the largest public event held annually in Northern California, and the second largest in the state next to the Rose Bowl, he said.
In May, the organization won the San Francisco Convention and Visitor’s Bureau’s 2006 Cable Car Award for promoting tourism in the city.
Saturday’s official SF Pride events will begin at noon in Civic Center Plaza, with performances and speakers on the main stage through 6 p.m.
On Sunday at 10:30 a.m. the annual Pride Parade will get underway with a roar when the more than 500 members of the Dykes on Bikes/Women’s Motorcycle Contingent lead almost 200 other floats and parade participants down Market street to Civic Center.
The Dykes on Bikes will lead the march from Market Street at Davis and Beale streets, in the city’s Financial District, and the entire parade is expected to wind up in Civic Center by around 2:30 p.m.