The Arlington Pride Block Party, billed as the suburban county’s “signature event” for Pride Month, has been canceled less than three weeks before it was scheduled to take place.
Scheduled for Saturday, June 6, the event was expected to draw hundreds of attendees to Crystal City’s Restaurant Row, a strip of eateries, bars, and pubs lining 23rd Street South.
Equality Arlington, the LGBTQ nonprofit serving as the event’s chief organizer, announced in a May 18 press release that organizers were postponing the block party. The group had been working with Arlington County government, the National Landing Business Improvement District, Freddie’s Beach Bar, and more than a dozen LGBTQ nonprofits, businesses, civic associations, and faith communities to organize the event.
“Given the scale of plans for live music and performances, community-centered programming and storytelling, local food vendors, and nonprofit, government, and business exhibitors, the coalition organizing the event has decided to postpone the block party until Pride 2027,” Equality Arlington said in the press release.
“It was a little disappointing that it fell through,” Tony Rivenbark, the general manager of Freddie’s Beach Bar, told Metro Weekly. “It’s not easy to bring it all together.”
He noted that more than 20 community organizations had been participating in discussions about the event and that several area churches and all three civic associations in the neighborhoods surrounding Restaurant Row had expressed support for the event.
“I think the main challenge that we had with the Arlington Pride Block Party is there was too much to do, and just not enough time to get it done,” Kellen MacBeth, president of Equality Arlington, told Metro Weekly.
“Around January, we approached the county about doing a block party this year,” MacBeth continued. “We’d asked the county to help us convene different nonprofits and businesses, faith communities, and other groups interested in being part of the planning process and making this happen.”
Equality Arlington held its first organizational meeting in mid-March to bring various groups together and brainstorm plans for an event proposed by Arlington’s LGBTQIA+ Advisory Committee.
On April 28, the county’s LGBTQIA+ Advisory Committee voted to ask Arlington County for $9,100 to help offset the estimated $35,000 cost of police staffing, parking, and permits for the block party. But the request “never actually got that far” with county officials, said MacBeth, because organizers were unable to finalize their plans.
“From the outset, we had very limited time to pull off a pretty large event, scope-wise,” said MacBeth, who remains hopeful that, with more advance planning and community input, organizers will be able to stage the block party next June.
In lieu of the block party, Equality Arlington and the National Landing BID will host a free screening of the 1995 LGBTQ comedy To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar. The screening will be held at 3 p.m. at Arlington’s Alamo Drafthouse Cinema and is expected to accommodate around 100 guests.
A Pride Party will follow the screening at the National Landing Water Park, an urban park along Crystal Drive that features fountains, picnic areas, a stage area for live entertainment, two full-service restaurants, and assorted food stalls. MacBeth said details are still being worked out.
In addition to the movie screening, several other Arlington Pride events — all free of charge — will take place throughout June, including the OUTstanding Pride Event at Courthouse Plaza from 12-1:30 p.m. on June 4, the Pride Senior Prom at Arlington Central Library from 7 p.m.-12 a.m. on June 12, and Drag Queen Bingo at Walter Reed Community Center from 6-7:30 p.m. on June 23.
Other notable events include a Pride Story and Rainbow Scavenger Hunt at Shirlington Library from 4:30-5:30 p.m. on June 25 and the 6th annual Penrose Pride Parade from 1-2 p.m. at Butler-Holmes Park on June 28.
MacBeth said he expects the number of Pride Month events to increase as June approaches.
Equality Arlington’s LGBTQ+ Movie Screening is Saturday, June 6, at 3 p.m. at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, 1660 Crystal Drive, in Arlington, Va. A Pride party at National Landing Water Park, 1601 Crystal Drive, will follow the movie. For more information and a schedule of other Pride Month events, visit equalityarlington.org/events.
“We, as human beings, need to dance,” says Luke Howard. “All cultures have dancing and music. Wherever you go in the world, there will be some type of music that will have some kind of dancing to it.
“And DJing is just a contemporary version of that,” he continues, “because back in the day, people would've played fiddles or guitars and drums. And they would've got together, and they would've sang songs and they would've danced around in all cultures. So, basically, all we're doing is continuing that need that we have as human beings to move our body to music that often has a beat to it.”
The Capital Pride Alliance, organizer of the annual celebration of Pride in the nation's capital, has announced that Grammy Award-winning, multi-platinum musical artist Maren Morris, will headline the 2026 Capital Pride Concert on Sunday, June 21.
Known for her music combining elements of country, pop, R&B, rock, and soul, Morris will be joined by acclaimed queer rapper Leikeli47, pop icon Lisa Lisa, the Toronto-based electronic musician and DJ Harrison -- a two-time JUNO Award nominee, whose music appears on thesoundtrack for the gay-themed HBO series Heated Rivalry -- and Myki Meeks, winner of Season 18 of RuPaul's Drag Race.
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