When we were first thinking about relocating to the Tampa Bay Area, one of the first weekend of events we attended in the community was Tampa Pride in March 2022, a few months before we finally made our definite move.

Having attended several Pride Festivities across the country—Atlanta, New York City, Chicago, Miami, and even Pensacola, to name a few—we realized how much potential for growth the Tampa Bay Area had to ramp up its Pride Celebration AND circuit scene all in one visit. We vowed then to help build up—while giving back to—the community once we finally moved here.

We’re very excited to announce our Tampa Pride Weekend 2023 line-up of events, which we’ve purposely dubbed Pride Vibes for the mere fact that the Vibe of the Tampa Bay community in general has been one that has been extremely welcoming and supportive of us as both individuals In the community as well as individuals trying to help its community flourish. Its laid-back nature and its insistence on kindness, compassion, and inclusion is exactly the VIBE we were searching for.

When we dubbed our weekend of Tampa Pride events “PRIDE VIBES,” we had exactly this inclusive and welcoming vibe that the gay community here has shown us in mind. From the overall name for the weekend, we thought a little deeper for the naming of our individual events within the weekend—originally, we were planning on six events, and automatically thought of the 6 colors of the modified 1979 Pride Flag by Gilbert Baker. GIlbert Baker chose the rainbow as a source of inspiration for the flag because he stated, “It’s a natural flag. It comes from the sky”.  And he attributed meaning to those colors….

• Red – Life, Vitality, Invigoration, & Courage
• Orange – Healing, Laughter, & Celebration
• Yellow – Sunlight, Mental Focus, Passion, & Creativity
• Green – Nature, Growth, Prosperity
• Blue/Indigo – Serenity, Calmness, Dreams
• Violet – Spirituality, Connection to a higher Power, Power, Regalness, Royalty

With that in mind, we named our events accordingly:

• PULSE – like the heart is the source of life and vitality, the pulse of drums is the source of all music
• VIBE – they say that laughter is the best medicine, and it definitely creates a perfect vibe for healing
• BLAZE – those of us who are creative are usually driven by a passion that burns as bright as the sun
• THRIVE – when we are allowed to grow and prosper, we thrive
• DREAM – sweet dreams are made when we’re calm and serene and at harmony with the world around us
• REIGN – while we are the rulers of our own destinies, our own power only increases with our spirituality and faith in a higher power — YASSS, Queen!

We decided that six events were too much for us, and we also found out that our friends at The Orange Party Foundation decided to do a Sunday Tea Dance for Tampa Pride Weekend. Even though it didn’t fall within the order we set, we decided to cut the “VIBE” event from our lineup because it correlated with the color Orange.