Out and About

The Long Beach gay community once again unleashes its annual fervor of pride, parade and camaraderie in broad daylight-with nary a closet to be found. It's a family-style event-though there is much partying and a leather tent for the willing-with two days of food, music and "weddings," which we hope one day we won't have to put in quotation marks. This year's Silver Anniversary Popeye-esque theme is the rather obvious "I Am What I Am," which could be anything from a pregnant lesbian soccer mom to a gay bachelor with too many parking tickets. Festival highlights include performances by the Bangles, the gotta-be-good Crystal Waters and Sheena Easton, who'll get your sugar walls ready to gyrate up against KC and the Sunshine Band's shaking booty. There are a host of smaller acts as well, including a band called Shitting Glitter, which, while wrong on so many levels, does crank out some extremely palatable new-wave tunes. Dust off your crimping iron, divas.
Sat., May 17, 10:30 a.m., 2008