Thousands line downtown Palm Springs street for Pride Parade

Palm Springs was the place to be for excitement and festivities Sunday morning as thousands lined the streets of downtown to watch the Pride Parade.

The music of John Phillip Sousa is a staple of many parades, but this time it’s playing to the backdrop of a rainbow palette.

“It’s great! It’s one of the best days to celebrate who we are here,” Vaughn Davies, a Palm Springs resident, said.

Over 100,000 people showed up for Palm Springs Pride weekend with many of them lining the streets celebrating the LGBTQ community and doing so with enthusiasm.

“It’s encouraging to see all these old people and young people and everything in between, it’s amazing. And the crowd’s enormous,” David Demers, a Palm Springs resident, said.

He has seen every single pride parade in the four year’s he’s lived in the city and says it’s a growing event.

“This is bigger than it was last year, and you can see other people like Jetblue and other people that weren’t here last year,” Demers said.

With cheers and encouragement all around as drag queens and community members alike parade through. For Demers an important takeaway from the festival is to spread tolerance.

“Be inclusive with everyone because I think bullying and anger isn’t going to get us anywhere. We really need to come together,” he said.