The eighth edition of the Mainland’s longest-running Pride festival features a wide range of events from community workshops to arts programming. While the festival technically kicks off on June 17, there will be a Pride Talk the night before at The Apartment centered around this year's theme I Am Me. In his furious efforts to cement his status as just the coolest, Sir Ian was seen rocking a PRIDE shirt in between stops at the Marriage Market, Cotton Club and the Shanghai International Film Festival, where he attended the press conference wearing a ShanghaiPRIDE shirt.
The annual ShanghaiPRIDE Art & Photo Exibition opens at Xin Cafe on June 17, as will the ShanghaiPRIDE Theatre Festival with female theater troupe Muju Group's musical Seasons of Love at Pudong New Theatre and improv group Zmack's performance at Lucca Cafe.
Saturday kicks off at 9am with the fourth PRIDE run that travels past the city's most iconic sights before finishing at XTD Elevated at The Langham, Shanghai, Xintiandi for the Pink Barbecue running from 11am-4pm. The official opening party goes down that night at 8 Art Hotel, with festival veterans imploring guests get their early because there will be a guaranteed line later in the night.
Other highlights includes Urban Aphrodite's adaptation of Psycho Beach Party. Running June 23-25 at Sasha's, the show mixes beach party shenanigans with Hitchcockian thrills as it goes behind a seemingly average beachside surfing town that has a startling number of homicides. Tickets available through That's here.
ShPTF caps off with a piece by ErGao Dance Company set to 1980s Chinese disco music. Commissioned by the Ibsen International, Disco Tesca at 1933 astounded at the Italian international arts festival GenderBender and its July 7 show will also serve as the start of their world tour.
In addition to its stage offerings and its traditional art exhibitions, the ShanghaiPRIDE Film Festival (ShPFF) returns for the second year in a row. The 10-day festival showcases new and emerging Chinese filmmakers with some of the most compelling movies from around the world. Running from June 17-26, this year’s film festival has a mandate of celebrating gender in all its forms. It opens grandly on June 19 at The Pearl from 3-11pm and closes at Kartel on June 26 at 3.30pm. A Queer Film Conference Day will be held on June 25 at the Grand Kempinski Hotel from 11.30am-8pm.
As always, there will be numerous community workshops throughout the festival, including a talk on Self and Community Awareness at the Shanghai American Center on June 19, as well as hosting an LGBTQ Groups One Day and the 9th National PFLAG (formerly known as Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) Conference at Andaz Xintiandi on June 25.
The 3rd Annual Asia LGBT Milestone Awards and Diversity Leadership Forum take place at the Grand Kempinski Hotel from 1-5.30pm with a networking cocktail party taking place at The Pearl later that night from 7-9pm.
And of course, there's the ShanghaiPRIDE closing party which takes over new Xintiandi hotspot Reel to Reel on June 25 from 9pm way into the night.
June 17-26, various locations. For the full schedule and more details, visit www.shpride.com or on WeChat at shanghai-pride.
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