After being thrilled by mega Pride parades every year, it’s your turn to hold one…
…and you quickly realize that pulling off a parade isn’t as effortless as other organizers may have made it look.
That’s because apart from planning your parade program and creating Pride posters, you’ll need to promote your parade to get people to come for it.
You’ll likely also need funding, and a team of people to help you with the work—and where will all these resources come from?
If you aren’t sure how to organize a Pride parade, check out these six tips (with examples!) for making your parade a spectacular success.
1. Promote the parade with social media posts
Tap into the power of social media to promote your Pride Month parade far and wide! If your posts get widely shared, you’ll know you can look forward to more people showing up on the big day.
Here’s an example of a social media post promoting a Pride Month parade.
Published by the Gender & Sexuality Resources department at John Hopkins University (JHU), the post invited users to walk with the university during the Baltimore Pride Parade:
We like how this post not only provides information on how users can register to walk with JHU, but also offers an incentive for doing so—namely, that the first 200 people to register will get a free Pride T-shirt.
Try these Gay Pride poster ideas for your own Pride Month parade:
Pick your favorite templates, then customize them in PosterMyWall’s easy-to-use design editor. The editor’s multiple resize tool makes it easy to resize your posts for different social media platforms, too!
And when your posts are ready, add them to your content planner.
When you do so, you’ll know exactly which posts you’ll be publishing during the days leading up to your parade.
2. Create a parade registration page for collecting RSVPs
As you start promoting your Gay Pride event, it’s good to know how many people are likely to turn up.
This way, you can better estimate whether your venue can accommodate everyone, or how many Pride parade posters you’ll need to print in advance (more info on the latter in the next section).
For inspiration, check out this registration page that Seattle Pride created for its “GALACTIC LOVE” 2023 Seattle Pride Parade:
The page contains key details of the parade, including its date, time, location, and agenda. Users can also purchase seats in advance if they wish.
And don’t worry if you aren’t confident of coding a registration page. Event management platforms like Eventbrite and Meetup will take care of the technical bits for you—you’ll just need to provide the details of your parade.
Even Facebook’s event page feature will work beautifully here!
3. Design posters for distributing during the parade
Some attendees will probably make posters to express their support for the LGBTQ+ community during the parade. Just like these folks designing their posters for Gandhinagar’s Pride parade in 2020:
But to cater to attendees who arrive without posters, you can prepare a stack for handing out to them!
On PosterMyWall, you’ll find many beautiful Pride poster templates such as these ones:
While many of these templates are great for printing immediately, you can jazz up your posters further with your favorite fonts and images before doing so. Don’t be afraid to go wild!
You may also find our recommended poster design strategies helpful for designing Pride posters that make your belief in LGBTQ+ equality loud and proud.
4. Put out an open call for parade sponsors
Holding a parade can cost quite a bit of money, but your organization doesn’t have to fork out the whole bill by itself. Some fellow pro-LGBTQ+ organizations may be more than happy to help sponsor the parade—all you need to do is ask.
So first, prepare your sponsorship packages. In other words, what can sponsors get in return for helping to make your parade happen?
For example, you might give them a shout-out at the start of the parade or display their logo on your parade posters and merch.
You can also offer different sponsorship tiers, where organizations that provide more sponsorship will enjoy more prominent publicity during your parade.
After that, you’re ready to put out an open call for parade sponsors—like what non-profit community Identity Alaska has done here!
5. Recruit volunteers to help out during your parade
Apart from sponsors, you’ll likely need parade volunteers, too. They can help with tasks such as:
- Handing out posters and goodie bags
- Undertaking crowd control
- Hyping up attendees with cheers!
And what’s a good platform to recruit volunteers? You got it—social media.
For instance, Boston Pride For The People (BP4TP) tweeted the following to seek volunteers for its Pride Month parade:
When posting your call for volunteers, provide instructions on how users can indicate their interest to volunteer. In BP4TP’s case, the organization linked to a sign-up form on its website.
6. Show off your parade outfit!
What will be your OOTD (Outfit of the Day) during the parade? Something bright and Pride-themed, most probably!
Once you’ve decided, give your followers a sneak peek of your outfit to get them excited about donning their very colorful best for the parade too.
You can do so by riding the GRWM trend:
Under this trend, users invite followers to “Get Ready With Me” for the place they’re heading to next. This place could be anywhere, such as the mall or a concert venue.
But in our case, you’d show yourself putting on your Pride parade clothes for your parade!
This GRWM video by Carlita Landrum demonstrates exactly what we mean:
Parade on with Pride!
Pride Month may last for only a month, but these tips can help you hold a Pride parade that encourages LGBTQ+ acceptance throughout the entire year! Now that’s a meaningful effort.
If you aren’t a professional graphic designer or don’t have the budget to hire one for creating the marketing collateral we’ve mentioned above, you’ll love how PosterMyWall makes designing your promotional material easy.
We offer a range of gorgeous design templates for practically every marketing need, and customizing these is easy in our beginner-friendly editor.
Our Gradient blog is also packed with marketing and design tips if you need more guidance on promoting your parade!
If you’re ready to get cracking, sign up for your free PosterMyWall account here.
