WeHo OUTLOUD Kicks Off Pride Month With Lizzo Comeback, Joyful Protest

For decades, West Hollywood has been home to one of the largest annual Pride celebrations in the world, drawing tens of thousands of people each June. Known as WeHo Pride since 2022 and anchored by the ticketed OUTLOUD Music Festival, the event drew large numbers to the official kick off for Pride Month.

“We make a commitment to a high-level production, great headliners with show stopping moments and really safe, joyful spaces to come together,” explained Jeff Consoletti founder and CEO of JJLA, the company that produces OUTLOUD and WeHo Pride. “And I think we hit on all of those consistently throughout the weekend. It was really visible just in the pure joy and smiles across our guests’ faces. You couldn’t help but notice that the vibes were high.”

The city doesn’t release exact figures for the free activations and event areas throughout the city, but daily ticketed attendance at OUTLOUD was 15,000 and Consoletti estimates that good weather and the political climate resulted in higher attendance across the board. 

“People this year feel the importance and connection to the history of Pride – that moment when Pride was really a protest and a demonstration of the world we wanted to see,” said West Hollywood Mayor Chelsea Lee Byers. “People are seeing – and feeling – a need to step into that resilience and that collective protest spirit.”

Held in and around West Hollywood Park and Santa Monica Boulevard, the event featured the free city sponsored WeHo Pride Presents Friday Night at OUTLOUD Music Festival with Maren Morris, as well as the paid-ticketed OUTLOUD Music Festival on May 31 and June 1, with headliners Lizzo, Remi Wolf, Honey Dijon, Paris Hilton and Kim Petras. Free programming included a mile-long street fair, the Women’s Freedom Festival, the Dyke March and the WeHo Pride Parade with other events happening throughout June. 

“When we think about the role of music and art and culture as the centerpiece of an event like Pride, people think of it as a protest,” said Byers. “But we are really encouraging people to enjoy themselves and have fun and to celebrate. Joy is so essential to protest. We really need to feel that sense of joy and community all around us.”

“We really kick Pride Month off in an attention-grabbing way,” said Consoletti. “Just like the mayor said, one of the most impactful ways to protest and show solidarity is by celebration. And we did exactly that – whether that was inside OUTLOUD Festival or throughout the streets of West Hollywood.”

Consoletti created OUTLOUD in 2020 as a platform to give LGBTQ+ artists more opportunities to connect with audiences, gain music industry exposure and create safe spaces for the LGBTQ+ community.

“We saw that there was a way for a queer musician and a queer company to reach queer fans and create a space that was safe for them,” said Consoletti, who will debut OUTLOUD Music Festival Boston with Bowery Presents on June 21 at The Stage at Suffolk Downs. 

Like the original, OUTLOUD Music Festival in Boston features a lineup of queer and ally entertainers and artists including Petras, a DJ set with Trixie Mattel, Flo Milli, Rebecca Black, G Flip and Frankie Grande. Tickets are available with a venue capacity of 7,500. 

“We’re excited to create a culture, and hopefully a longtime home for OUTLOUD on the East Coast that champions queer audiences and brings that same fervor and joy that we create in West Hollywood to Boston,” said Consoletti. 

Beantown is a welcoming city for the LGBTQ+ community, with the City Council declaring it a “sanctuary city” for LGBTQIA2S+ individuals, including transgender and gender-diverse people. In 2024, Boston opened an LGBTQ-friendly apartment building for seniors, the first of its kind in New England. 

“Right now, there’s a lot of uncertainty when it comes to spaces where you feel like you can be safe,” explained Consoletti. “And what I’m really proud of is that OUTLOUD does create that. We show that a community can show up and support one another – solidarity with one another – and show that we’re not being erased and we’re not being silenced.”

OUTLOUD provides the LGBTQ+ community an important platform for visibility, expression and celebration and Consoletti hopes to see it expand to other parts of the country. 

“It feels like we’re just getting started in big ways,” he said. “And it certainly feels that like OUTLOUD in terms of Pride Month really has become the brand that is setting the standard for what a queer music festival looks like here in the States.”