Starting on Monday, Santa Clara Valley will be a bit brighter, more fun, extra colorful and—most of all—much louder. But it will be a joyful noise, welling up from a community coming together to celebrate.
It’s all part of Silicon Valley Pride Week, the South Bay’s annual celebration of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. (The “2S” was added by SV Pride this year to affirmatively include two-spirit groups.)
As chief marketing officer for Silicon Valley Pride, Saldy Suriben is one of the hard-working volunteers behind Pride Week. “Our theme this year is Get Loud,” he says. “We want to get loud to go out to vote—we want to get loud to recognize our true self.”
Peak noise levels won’t be reached until Aug. 25, during the Pride Parade and the ensuing festival in downtown San Jose. But there’s a lot more happening in the days leading up to that, and Suriben is happy to share the details.
Weeknight Festivities
For Monday’s Drag Queen Cooking Showdown, a free event taking place from 6 to 9pm at the AC Hotel by Marriott in Santa Clara, local queens Chai Auntea and Kalypso will cook for a panel of judges, drawing on their Desi heritage to prepare their own renditions of tikka masala. Writer/podcaster Gregg Aronica and Chef Carlos from Rebekah Children’s Services will host the event.
The next day, Aug. 20, celebrants will gather at 5pm for the Pride Flag Raising and Rainbow Lighting Ceremony at San Jose City Hall, sponsored by councilmembers Pam Foley, Dev Davis and Omar Torres. Following that, the action will be in Campbell at the Pruneyard Cinemas’ Cedar Room, which will host Pride Trivia Night from 6:30 to 9:30pm. Suriben says, “There’s going to be three rounds of trivia, all related to the LGBTQ community—icons, events, history and also pop culture.” Both events are free.
On Aug. 21, the AC Hotel by Marriott in Santa Clara will again show its Pride with the Hey Girl Black and Pink Pool Party from 6 to 9pm.
It’s time for a little night market on Thursday, Aug. 22. “We’re partnering with Filco Events to host Pobladores Night Market: Pride Edition, and that’s happening from 5:30 to 9pm,” Suriben says. The night is hosted by local drag queen Just Karen, and will feature LGBTQ vendors and performers, with sets by musicians Lisa Dewey and Vincent Aire.
Also that night, Pruneyard Cinemas will host a 6pm screening of Rocky Horror Picture Show, cosponsored by radio stations Mix 106.5 and Bay Country 94.5/92.1.
On the eve of the festival weekend, Silicon Valley Pride will throw a kickoff party with Good Vibes from 6 to 10pm at a venue in downtown San Jose, with details to be announced.
Weekend Forecast: ‘Rainbows and Glitter’
Saturday, Aug. 24 will feature evening entertainment at Plaza de Cesar Chavez in downtown San Jose from 6 to 10 pm. Both the Main Stage and the Hip Hop/R&B Stage will feature a mix of DJs and live performers. And the third? “This is our first time having a third stage,” Suriben says coyly, calling it the Unknown Stage. “Folks will just need to find out” what will be happening there.
He adds, “There’s going to be food trucks, different vendors, of course entertainment—and a lot of rainbows and glitter.”
On Sunday, Aug. 25, the Pride Parade starts at Julian and Market streets at 10:30am and ends up at Plaza de Cesar Chavez at noon. Suriben promises “a plethora of organizations and companies and politicians marching to support the LGBTQ community. And also a lot of floats and people walking.”
After the parade comes the day festival, which runs from noon to 6pm. Again there will be three stages, plus a “family garden” with a lot of kid-friendly activities and “many more surprises to be announced,” Suriben promises.
Being one of the few Pride events that doesn’t take place in June, Silicon Valley Pride draws tourists to the area, Suriben says. “We notice that we’ve been getting a lot of folks from Oakland, from Santa Cruz, even throughout the whole Bay Area. And of course other cities in Santa Clara County.”
All this traffic benefits the county, Suriben says: “I feel like our annual pride parade and festival tends to contribute to the economy and help neighboring businesses, especially in downtown San Jose.”
“It’s $5 to come to the festival per day, and that helps us with the cost and expenses of running the parade and festival,” Suriben says. “We encourage everybody to come celebrate with us and be their authentic self and be part of the LGBTQ+ community. Let’s get loud!”
