NYC cancels Pride March, Puerto Rican Day Parade along with all June gatherings
Photo by Josh Wilburne on Unsplash
Though Governor Cuomo has only extended New York Pause through May 15, Mayor de Blasio went one step further and canceled all non-essential permitted events in June. Most notably this includes the Pride March (for which it would have been the 50th anniversary), the National Puerto Rican Day Parade, and the Celebrate Israel Parade. In addition to parades, concerts, rallies, and large gatherings will be canceled through June.
Speaking to the large city-wide events in his press conference this morning, the Mayor said, “The permits are being canceled for June, but the event organizers, a lot of them are looking at doing something later in the year, and we’re going to work with them on that.”
Pride would have taken place from June 14 through June 28, the day of the parade. David A. Correa, NYC Pride Interim Executive Director, said in a statement, “We are a community that thrives when we are united. We may not fill the streets of New York City this year, but LGBTQIA+ people carry pride with them all year long. I have no doubt that we will be together again soon.” The organization plans to hold a virtual Pride event in June, and they will participate in the virtual Global Pride event on Saturday, June 27.
Likewise, the Celebrate Israel Parade tells 6sqft that they are “planning a virtual event on Celebrate Israel Parade day, Sunday, June 7th.”
The National Puerto Rican Day Parade was to occur on June 14; 6sqft has reached out to ask for any updates. Other June events include Coney Island’s Mermaid Parade and Prospect Park’s Celebrate Brooklyn Festival. Executive director of the City Parks Foundation Heather Lubov, which oversees Central Park’s SummerStage concert series, told NY1 on Friday that they were already preparing to get a late start: “We have a mobile stage that we can set up basically in a day. And we have an RV that we can drive in and use as a dressing room for our artists.”
Other entities across the city have taken it upon themselves to cancel or postpone summer events. To name a few, Broadway will remain dark until at least June 7, Lincoln Center has canceled all summer programming, Shakespeare in the Park completely canceled its 2020 festival, and the Governors Ball music festival has been entirely canceled for 2020.
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