The mood Sunday – the day of the West Hollywood parade on Santa Monica Blvd. – was noticeably (and understandably) more somber compared to Saturday, especially when it was revealed that a 20-year-old Indiana man, James Wesley Howell, had been arrested while heading toward the festival, allegedly with an arsenal of weapons. But these shocking news stories didn’t deter members and friends of Los Angeles’s LGBT community from showing up and showing their support. And by the time Sunday’s main musical acts – New Orleans’s “Queen of Bounce” Big Freedia on the Hip-Hop Stage, and indie-pop princess Carly Rae Jepsen closing out the Main Stage – performed at West Hollywood Park, the vibe was celebratory once more.
Jepsen kept things light during her concert, merely mentioning it had been a “tough weekend” and that it was “hard to know what to say…so let’s party!” But her sweet, starry-eyed odes to old-fashioned infatuation, starting with the winsome “Run Away With Me” and ending with the effervescent hit singles “Call Me Maybe” and “I Really Like You,” provided exactly the mood-lift that L.A. Pride attendees so desperately needed.
Updates coming soon.
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