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Events Advisory: Visitor health and safety is a top priority for the entire Philadelphia region. In an effort to limit the impact and spread of COVID-19, many events have been suspended or rescheduled. For information on COVID-19, click here.
Every year, the event scene in Philadelphia is punctuated by a host of exciting LGBTQ events.
2020 sees the return of banner annual events like the massive PrideDay LGBT Parade and Festival in June, and OutFest, the world’s largest National Coming Out Day bash, which hits the Gayborhood during LGBTQ History Month.
There’s plenty to do in the arts world, too, like the Philadelphia FringeArts Festival, a weeks-long theater fest that’s always packed with queer artists and performances. And The Fabric Workshop & Museum welcomes an intriguing exhibition by Jonathan Lyndon Chase, a local painter and drawer whose works focusing on black queer bodies is nabbing national attention.
Here’s a look at what to expect from Philadelphia’s LGBTQ scene in 2020.
Dates vary by performance
Gender-bending performance artist John Jarboe hosts this monthly late-night cabaret that features queer performers from Philly and beyond. The spring 2020 lineup includes New York cabaret artist Molly Pope (February 28, 2020), Mexican experimental music composer Tareke Ortiz (March 20, 2020) and deliciously witty author and playwright R. Eric Thomas (April 10, 2020).
Where: FringeArts, 140 N. Christopher Columbus Boulevard, Philadelphia, PA
The songbirds of the Philadelphia Gay Men’s Chorus celebrate their 38th anniversary with multiple concerts this year. @QueerZ: Songs for a New Generation welcomes Temple University a cappella group Pitch, Please for an evening of tunes that explores the experiences of contemporary queer youth (March 28, 2020). Later, the group teams up with the Philadelphia School of Circus Arts for Cirque du So Gay: Straight Out of Vegas! at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre. The spectacle features aerialists, jugglers and acrobats along with tunes from some of Sin City’s most famous residencies: Sinatra, Elvis, Celine and Mariah (May 8-9, 2020).
Where: Various locations including Suzanne Roberts Theatre, 480 S. Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA
This long-running event is now a bonafide Philly institution. Every month in the spring and fall, a troupe of zany drag queens leads an evening of bingo, live performance and other shenanigans, giving attendees a chance to win prizes and benefit a good cause. Money raised from ticket sales goes directly to AIDS Fund Philly.
Where: Congregation Rodeph Shalom, 615 N. Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA
When it comes to diva appearances in Philadelphia in 2020, it doesn’t get much bigger than Celine. The campy Canadian songstress takes over the Wells Fargo Center with her first road tour in more than a decade. The show promises to be a real audience-pleaser, with a song list that includes all of her biggest power ballads: All By Myself, It’s All Coming Back to Me Now, My Heart Will Go On and more.
Where: Wells Fargo Center, 3601 S. Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA
Hilarious Elle columnist and longtime host of The Moth StorySLAMs R. Eric Thomas returns to his one-time hometown to share passages from his debut essay collection, Here for It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America. In the work, Thomas ruminates on what it means to be “other” in America in the 21st century, offering incisive — and laugh-out-loud funny — critiques on pop culture and politics, as well as personal stories about grappling with being Christian and gay.
Where: Free Library of Philadelphia — Parkway Central Library, 1901 Vine Street, Philadelphia, PA
Approximately 200 regional restaurants donate 33% of every food purchase to local HIV/AIDS nonprofit Action Wellness during this popular annual event. This year’s event goes virtual — encouraging participants to dine in while raising money for the 30th anniversary of the cause.
Where: 466 Northcroft Rd, Springfield, PA 19064, USA
One of Philadelphia’s longest-running Pride weekend events, the Philadelphia Dyke March gathers hundreds for a good old-fashioned protest through the streets of Philadelphia. The goal of the event, now in its 22nd year, is to celebrate and raise visibility for self-identified dykes and their allies, which is accomplished through the march and a subsequent festival that rocks Louis I. Kahn Park with live music, beat poets and burlesque dancers.
Where: Various locations including Louis I. Kahn Park, 1119 Pine Street, Philadelphia, PA
Philadelphia’s Mazzoni Center hosts the world’s only free conference dedicated to promoting health and wellness in the transgender community. The multi-day affair packs in dozens of vendors, speaking engagements and networking events to spotlight the latest developments on the trans-wellness scene — both for those in the transgender community and medical professionals who seek to learn more about caring for trans patients.
Where: Pennsylvania Convention Center, 1101 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA
This annual theater-arts festival, which takes place in venues across the city, is always jam-packed with shows that highlight the LGBTQ experience. Look out for festival regulars like gender-bending cabaret queen John Jarboe and his Bearded Ladies, and the world’s self-proclaimed tallest, hairiest drag queen, Martha Graham Cracker.
Where: Various locations including FringeArts, 140 N. Christopher Columbus Boulevard, Philadelphia, PA
The Fabric Workshop and Museum welcomes a months-long exhibition by local painter and drawer Jonathan Lyndon Chase, whose work primarily focuses on queer, Black bodies in their everyday environments. The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts grad has been getting national attention after an article in GQ spotlighted him as an artist who paints “Black male homosexuality in all its stark, loving glory.”
Where: The Fabric Workshop and Museum, 1214 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA
Film and television star Alan Cumming (Eyes Wide Shut, Cabaret) and radio journalist Ari Shapiro (All Things Considered) team up for an evening of song and tall-tale spinning in their first traveling musical act, Och & Oy! A Considered Cabaret. The show concludes with a Q&A with the audience.
Where: Merriam Theater, 250 S. Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA
The festival begins with an Equality Flag ceremony and continues with a weeklong celebration that culminates with the Pride Parade and Fair (Saturday, May 16, 2020), which crosses the bridge from Lambertville, New Jersey, to New Hope, the site of outdoor performances and events.
On National Coming Out Day weekend, individuals take to the streets of Philadelphia for this boisterous march and protest calling for equality, justice and compassion for transgender, non-binary and gender-non-conforming people. The location for 2020 has yet to be announced, but attendees can expect a boisterous march bookended by impassioned speakers as well as performances by local poets and musicians.
Where: Location TBA, Philadelphia, PA
Philly celebrates LGBTQ History Month each October with the largest National Coming Out Day festival on the planet. OutFest shuts down 10 city blocks in the Gayborhood to make room for hundreds of vendors, carnival games, a flea market and a stage that rocks with musical, dance and drag performances all day.
Where: Festival centered at 12th and Locust streets, Philadelphia, PA
Halloween doesn’t get much more fabulous than jeweler Henri David’s annual bash, which marks its 52nd year in 2020. The spectacle is one of the biggest LGBTQ fêtes of fall, with guests dressed to the nines, live entertainment and what is perhaps the night’s biggest draw: David’s pop-diva-worthy costume reveal.
Where: Philadelphia 201 Hotel, 201 N. 17th Street, Philadelphia, PA
The Visit Philly Overnight Package — booked more than 190,000 times since 2001 — comes with free hotel parking (worth up to $100 in Center City Philadelphia) and overnight hotel accommodations.
A month-by-month guide to the biggest, can’t-miss events in the City of Brotherly Love...
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