Culver Pride 2026 celebrates authenticity and artistic expression

The 2026 iteration of Culver City Pride Ride and Festival took place in Downtown Culver City on Saturday, June 27, bringing hundreds of people to the Culver Steps and surrounding area to celebrate the freedom and artistic expression of the LGBTQ+ community.

Booths selling Pride merchandise, artists displaying their work, and an onstage program featuring DJs, drag queens, and other entertainment were among the attractions at the 2026 Culver Pride Festival. For the first time, local and queer artists showcased their work with live painting and booths until 10 p.m., allowing attendees to visit after the evening's variety of stage performances.

While a motivated group of Culver City community members has taken on the task of organizing the event each year, several local officials were pivotal in the creation of Culver Pride. In June 2021, the spark for a Pride event in Culver City was lit when a young member of the public asked Councilmember Yasmine-Imani McMorrin a question: What is Culver City doing to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community?

With no official city plans to celebrate Pride, McMorrin reached out to the community to quickly organize something within the month.

One of the unique features of Culver Pride is the bike ride that has become a signature part of the city’s celebration of the LGBTQ+ community. Coming on the heels of the MOVE Culver City pilot project, which established both a separated bike lane and a separated bus lane in the Downtown area, Culver City’s first celebration of Pride in 2021 included a successful six-mile ride through the residential streets of Culver City that ended in a rally at City Hall.

Estimates from last year’s ride put the number of riders participating in the 2025 ride at 500 to 600, and that number was similar this year based on the registration numbers, according to Jim Shanman, whose Walk n’ Rollers co-hosted the ride with Bike Culver City. This year’s ride took a five-mile route through Culver City neighborhoods to get from Ivy Station at 8809 Washington Blvd. to the Town Plaza at the Culver Steps.

The focus on mobility continued at the festival, where organizers saw a jump in attendance much larger than in past years. An estimated 1,500 people visited the Pride Festival, which featured booths from several mobility-focused organizations — including Metro Los Angeles, Metro Bike Share, and Bike Culver City — sharing information about making Culver City and Los Angeles more connected for bikers and other micromobility users.

Jack Galanty, one of the lead organizers and head of the Visual and Design team for Culver Pride, told Culver Crescent that Culver City’s unique collaboration with Metro Los Angeles has led to a new addition this year.

“We have our exclusive TAP card for our event that we were able to get through our partners at Culver City Bus,” Galanty said. “We are the only Pride Festival in LA County that has its own TAP card — that’s a real testament to our mobility-focused platform that sets us apart from other Pride events in the area.”

Other local groups and organizations also took their place in the Culver City Pride Festival to spread messages of love and acceptance, including the Culver City Presbyterian Church. Dr. Frances Rosenau, the pastor at the Church, donned a bright, rainbow-colored outfit and took on the title “Pastor Hugs” to spread love to those who wanted it at the 2026 Pride Festival.

Culver City’s Special Events Grant helps fund the Pride events, but outreach to local businesses, corporations, and organizations for sponsorships has enabled the Pride Festival's continued success and opportunities for development.

“We are expanding our Arts and Culture area,” Galanty said. “We [had] a few selected LGBTQ+ artists, as well as some live painting demos and other experiences in that section. We [were] really excited to introduce that this year in a more fleshed-out way.”

A host of political figures also appeared at the 2026 Culver City Pride Festival. Local figures like Mayor Freddy Puza and Culver City Unified School District School Board Member Triston Ezidore joined elected officials representing Culver City residents beyond its borders, such as California State Assemblymember Isaac Bryan and California State Senator Lola Smallwood-Cuevas.

Puza and Ezidore, along with Vice Mayor Bubba Fish, are among the first openly LGBTQ+ elected officials in Culver City, with the former originally suggesting a “Pride Ride” when plans to formally celebrate Pride Month in Culver City were first being formulated in 2021.

For Puza and others, this Culver Pride is more meaningful given the current political climate. In expressing what this event meant to him, Puza recalled a recent conversation he had with his seven-year-old goddaughter in which she asked him simply, “Did you choose to be gay?”

Thinking about his place in that moment made it click for Puza: if he weren’t gay, he would be a different person.

“Today, and every day,” Puza said at the Festival, “is really about living your true, authentic self.”