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Astoria’s fifth annual Pride parade returns June 8 with drag, dancing and community pride

Previous Astoria Pride event at ICON. Photo courtesy of Albatross Bar.

June 6, 2025 By Shane O’Brien

Hundreds are expected to turn out for the 2025 Astoria Pride March, which will once again wind its way through 30th Avenue and Steinway Street, celebrating the LGBTQ+ community and spotlighting three of the neighborhood’s most iconic queer-owned establishments.

The festivities will begin with a pre-march rally outside Albatross Bar located at 36-19 24th Ave. at 5 p.m. on Sunday, June 8. The rally will feature performances by local drag queens who regularly perform at Albatross and its two sister bars, KWEEN and ICON Astoria.

From there, the march will move east on 24th Avenue to Steinway Street, then turn down 30th Avenue, passing KWEEN at 34-10 30th Ave., before concluding at ICON Astoria at 31-84 33rd St. Organizers are encouraging attendees to keep the celebration going at ICON, where a post-march party will include music, dancing and more live performances.

Previous Astoria Pride event at Albatross. Photo courtesy of Albatross Bar.

David Booher, co-owner of Albatross, KWEEN, and ICON, said the parade has grown significantly since its debut in 2021. That first march was organized after the citywide NYC Pride parade was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and quickly became a beloved community tradition in its own right.

“Every year it’s actually gotten bigger and bigger as more people are finding out about it,” Booher said, stating that organizers initially anticipated that interest in the Astoria parade might wane once the Manhattan parade returned after COVID.

Now, the event is fast becoming a neighborhood staple, drawing a wide range of “allies” to the parade route.

“It has gotten to the point where people are bringing dogs and we have allies with entire family units- kids riding on parents’ shoulders,” he said. “It’s just grown exponentially every year.”

Booher said the Astoria event differs from the NYC parade because “everyone knows everyone,” adding that the addition of a yearly Pride event is “great” for the neighborhood.

“You go to the bars in Manhattan and you come across strangers, tourists, a lot of stuff like that,” he said. “At our spaces in Astoria, we have lots of regulars and everyone kind of knows everyone. It’s great to have that day of the year where we’re not all spread out all over the city.”