HOUSTON — Pride Houston 365 announced on Friday that while its parade will return in 2023, the festival will not.
The organization cited several reasons to stick with the parade but not the festival, including cost, attendance size and safety.
Cost
According to Pride Houston 365, security costs for the celebration were three to five times more expensive in 2022 than 2019.
But it wasn't just security that cost more, organizers said marketing costs and insurance costs nearly tripled. They said while sponsorships did increase, the rising costs outpaced that increase.
Attendance
The organization said around 80,000 people attempted to attend the festival in 2022, but the city had made the decision to restrict the capacity of the event due to record high temperatures and public safety.
Around 850,000 people were in attendance at the parade, which Pride Houston said is the reason the Pride Celebration will not be able to return to Montrose.
"Montrose would have to completely shut down to accommodate them. The Montrose residents will not allow this and the City of Houston will not permit it," Pride Houston said in an Instagram post.
Safety
Organizers said the Houston Fire Department made patient contact with 106 people at the 2022 Pride festival and 12 of those people were taken to nearby hospitals due to the heat.
Pride Houston said the organization provided the event with 8 EMTs and HFD provided additional resources, adding an unexpected cost to the festival.
During the event, all cooling busses had completely filled up with lines of people waiting to get in by 2 p.m., two hours past the start of the festival, according to Pride Houston.