Pride month is just around the corner and will be here before you know it. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, the event that launched the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement and the entire reason we celebrate Pride in June. Across the country, this year's festivities are already shaping up to be by far the biggest we've ever seen, which is why San Diego Pride is pulling out all the stops with their newly announced headliner, King Princess.
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Fresh off playing Coachella, the queer Brooklyn-based songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer is set top the bill for San Diego's Pride Festival alongside other LGBTQ+ icons such as Melissa Etheridge. King Princess skyrocketed to fame last year with a string of critically acclaimed releases landing her a record deal with Mark Ronson's label and culminating in the sapphic anthem "Pussy Is God."
"Playing San Diego Pride is a true honor," she says. "Pride celebrations are a pillar of liberation and representation in our community, and a reminder of our ability to bring happiness to one and another through inclusion. It's about giving each other a home in which we can share our truest expression of self without judgement. Our founding mother Marsha [P. Johnson] fought to give us our space to express ourselves freely and to celebrate our love, I'm honored to be a part of this loving community. Come rock with me and Melissa!"
As the sixth largest Pride celebration in the country, the two-day annual festival draws over 45,000 people to its wide selection of vendors, art exhibitions, presentations, food, and stacked lineup of performers. King Princess will only be the latest in a long line of queer icons to grace the San Diego Pride Festival, including previous performers Kesha, TLC, Kathy Griffin, JoJo, Kim Petras, Margaret Cho, En Vogue, Estelle, Ruby Rose and Big Freedia.
"Pride celebrations are a pillar of liberation and representation in our community, and a reminder of our ability to bring happiness to one and another through inclusion."
"The ability for compelling LGBTQ artists like King Princess to come right out the gate fully embracing their identity in their music, medium, and public persona embodies how far we've come since the Stonewall Riots," says San Diego Pride Executive Director Fernando López. "It's an honor to have a queer rising star like King Princess headline at San Diego Pride's Festival along with Melissa Etheridge and all the other iconic LGBTQ artists we're eager to announce, all of whom approach their craft and our community with social justice in their hearts."
Tickets to San Diego Pride Festival are currently available online in addition to a limited number of meet-and-greet tickets for King Princess.
Photo courtesy of King Princess