On the weekend of Nov. 6-8, there will be no festival in downtown Palm Springs. There will be no parade. However, Greater Palm Springs Pride will go on—mostly online, like almost everything else has since COVID-19 reared its unbelievably ugly head in March.
However, there will be a few events with an in-person aspect … sort of. The Front Runners’ 5k run, a fundraiser for the LGBT Center of the Desert, will take place—but instead of everyone running together, the participants will pick their own time and route. Pride-themed movies will be screened at the Palm Springs Cultural Center—outside, on the newish drive-in screen, with attendees in their cars or socially distanced.
And then there’s the possible car caravan—which, when it was first announced, caused Palm Springs Pride president and CEO Ron deHarte no small amount of grief after certain locals, perhaps not understanding the concept, freaked out on social media.
We recently spoke to deHarte about the plans for 2020 Greater Palm Springs Pride.
Tell me a little bit about the re-imagined Pride this year.
So many cities have gone virtual for their pride events. What we’re trying to do is a combination of online activities that people can participate in from the comfort of their home, and true activities where you can be active, like the Front Runners’ 5k run, which is always very popular. But this year, instead of waking up on Saturday morning and joining 500 other people, you go and you do your 5k run or walk at your leisure, on your own. You’re still able to raise money; we can raise money for the Center. That’s one way where people are still able to get out of their house, and be a part of something bigger, but not have to sit and watch something that’s a livestream online.
The drive-in movie nights are another way where people can be safe and social distance, but come together and watch a couple of Pride-themed movies on Friday and Saturday night.
Then we have some more of the traditional things that people would see, but via livestream. The (Interfaith Pride Kabbalat) Shabbat will be livestreamed on Friday night. Our flag-raising ceremony—we traditionally have done a big media event as we unfurl the flag from the Stergios (building) tower (at Desert Regional Medical Center). Well, this year, we’re going to do a livestream so people can watch the flag unfurlings, not only at the Stergios tower, but downtown and at City Hall.
Let’s discuss the caravan, since that’s the thing everyone seems riled up about.
We have put forward an idea for the caravan. It’s not set in stone. We’ve watched what’s been done in 17 other cities; actually, Salt Lake City is organizing a really large one (on Oct. 11), so we’ll watch that very closely.
(The idea) is the old political protest—the caravan where people drive through the city and raise awareness and honk their horns and be visible, be heard and capture media attention. That’s the idea behind the car caravan: We could give people from the same household the opportunity to come out for a couple of hours; make a poster with their political statement on it, or a message of love; and they could maybe decorate their car a bit, and come and drive on our open roads. It would be a free event for people to participate in. We would do it during a scheduled time period and follow a scheduled route, giving people who don’t have a car or aren’t able to participate the ability to see what’s happening by staying home and watching a livestream. The idea is not in place for spectators. It’s on open roads. There’s no parade, no marching bands, no dancing queens—none of that. … It’s a solo experience, but at the end of the day, any caravan we organize in Palm Springs is going to get a lot of media attention—and that’s part of what this political protest caravan is all about. It’s raising awareness and getting attention.
What steps are you taking to make sure this doesn’t attract crowds?
First, I want to remind everyone that nothing is set in stone. This is still an idea that’s being worked on, and it’s not finalized that it’s going to happen. We will take it day by day, because if our COVID-positive numbers don’t get better, and the situation changes for us, we’re going to evaluate everything we’re doing. If there’s a slight chance that people are not going to be safe, then we will not go forward with whatever plan we’ve got in place.
We’ve been talking to the city, a special-event planning team, about the safety measures that need to be in place—like the possibility of not promoting the route. There are positives and negatives to that, but that’s definitely something that we’re looking at—to not promote it publicly, and only make it known when the participants arrive in the morning to get in their lineup. People have to register ahead of time, so they know that they’re not allowed to have party trucks, party buses or party limos. They’re agreeing that they are coming from the same households. They are agreeing that they will be wearing masks. They will agree that they’re not to come to the check-in, get out of their car and start to party. They’ll have an assigned parking space; they will go to their assigned parking space, and when it’s time to roll out at the step-off moment, cars will exit the parking-lot area in sequence.
On the route, there are no closed streets, with regular traffic signs and regular traffic signals; regular laws have to be followed along the route. We’ve asked for permission to end the route in front of City Hall. People will come in one entrance; they will hand off their poster or signs that they made. … That statement sign will be given to a team of three or four folks that are making a design that will be visible on the lawn of City Hall, all day Saturday and all day Sunday. This art installation (would be) a collected community statement. But once they hand off their poster, no one gets out of their cars. Again, there’s no speaking; there’s no entertainment. They just keep driving through and exit the other side of the parking lot at City Hall.
We’re not creating assembly points. … This is being made for TV. The idea is to really show people who are at home, not participating; they can tune into YouTube or the livestream on Facebook. There are not going to be things for people to see—but if somebody was to go sit alongside the road, there are going to be at least 10 miles of roadway where anyone who is conscious of what’s going on in society today can social distance themselves. … We’ve even proposed that we have additional police support that day to help discourage folks from gathering. But we just don’t see (people gathering) happening. It hasn’t happened in the 17 cities that we’ve been modeling from. It didn’t happen in Chula Vista, which is I think the closest model for us to follow.
Some people are concerned that because Palm Springs Pride is putting together a weekend slate of events, that will encourage people to come to Palm Springs and party—because, well, this is Palm Springs.
Well, there’s plenty that is happening in town today, where there are activities taking place. … I think other than the caravan, everything that we’re talking about is already happening right now in Palm Springs. We’re not proposing something that’s any different than what’s happening today in Palm Springs—and people are already coming to Palm Springs. Next weekend, they’re going to be here. The following weekend, they’re going to be here. We’re not promoting to Los Angeles, or San Diego, or Long Beach to come and celebrate Pride in Palm Springs, because we don’t have anything for them to come and physically celebrate. There are no parties. There are no pool events. Even our proposed tea dance is virtual—so you can go and dance in your home. … We just don’t see people driving here to participate in these virtual experiences.
For more information, visit apps.pspride.org.