Chicago Pride Parade Canceled Again Due To Coronavirus Pandemic

CHICAGO — For the second straight year, organizers have pulled the plug on the Chicago Pride Parade due to the coronavirus pandemic. The annual event, typically held in June, had been rescheduled for next month. Organizers made the decision official on Monday and have scheduled next year's edition for Sunday, June 26, 2022.

"Our primary reason [moving the parade to Oct. 3] was with the advent of three effective vaccines, we felt that the late date would allow for most people to be vaccinated and, thus, make it much safer to have a parade," Tim Frye, 2021 Chicago Pride Parade coordinator, said in a statement. "Sadly, we were very naïve in that belief or, a more accurate word — 'hope.' Everyone knows the reasons we were wrong in our estimate as to how safe things would be in the fall. Leave it at that."

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Chicago Pride Parade, first organized in 1970, is one of the largest, by attendance, in the world. For the 50th edition in 2019, more than one million people attended.

This year's parade was set to feature 150 registered entries, including floats, decorated vehicles, performance groups, a marching band and walking contingents. The parade would have stepped off from the Broadway/Montrose corner, proceeded south on Broadway; then south on Halsted; then east on Belmont; then south on Broadway; then east on Diversey to Cannon Drive.

"We don’t feel, though, that we can do it safely for everyone in the parade and the people watching," Frye said.

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