Los Angeles streets expressed LGBT admiration this weekend with LA Pride’s 48th annual festival. The two day event included art exhibits, entertainment, giveaways and more.
The event held an array of performers including Kehlani, Superfruit, and Icona Pop.
The event sold out for the first time in the event’s history with over 100,000 people showing up to the festival. However, attendees were turned away from performances due to the event being over sold.
As a result of the enormous turnout the event reached full capacity at 9 p.m. Attendees who purchased tickets were asked to go home after waiting in line for hours.
The crowd was considered a fire hazard with deputies and fire marshals clearing the area.
The hashtag #LAPride was trending on twitter for several hours following the incident. Festival goers expressed their disappointment with the way things were handled.
Plane Ticket ✅
LA Pride tickets ✅
Hotel Tickets ✅
Uber Check ✅
Not getting into Pride after waiting for 3 hours ✅#lapride#weho— Manolo (@manolo_ordonez2) June 10, 2018
I think the stuff going on with #LAPride is just more commercialization of pride. It is shameful to sell more tickets than you have capacity for. The Stonewall riot and lgbt rights movement wasn't about companies making money. Pride is about equality. Refund all tickets sold.
— Dee (@DeeCherAime) June 10, 2018
https://twitter.com/mkygod/status/1005685067849404416
Organizers of the event took to twitter to apologize for the inconvenience stating that anyone turned away can use their unused ticket for entry to Sunday’s events. Attendees will also receive further information on a potential refund on Monday.
Thank you to all who came out to the first day of the 2018 LA Pride Festival yesterday. We are sorry and would like to apologize to everyone who could not get in after the venue hit capacity. More below… #JUSTBE#LAPride#Pride2018pic.twitter.com/xFE5eKfQkf
— LA Pride (@lapride) June 10, 2018
Headliner Kehlani issued a statement expressing her dismay for those who were left out of the event.
“As fun as that was, my heart goes out to all the folks who drove, flew, train and bussed here and weren’t allowed in,” she posted on Twitter. “Throughout all the mishaps, tonight we broke a record. Made history. LA Pride committee said they’ve never seen ticket sales like this. Thank you again, really.”
as fun as that was my heart goes out to all the folks who drove, flew, train & bussed here and weren’t allowed in. my heart is wit those who had scary run ins with the LAPD & bad security tonight. we gotta do better.
— Kehlani (@Kehlani) June 10, 2018
