Pride Month’s climax and the Cyclone turns 95: 10 things to do this weekend

By Joshua Encinias

Pride Month wraps up this weekend with parties, queer movies, and comedy sets. Oh, and what would Pride be without a few drag shows? We’ve got those too.

Elsewhere, you can watch Brooklyn’s favorite cartoon shell over brunch; there’s a Black women authors book swap; a photography festival returns; and comedian Julio Torres live on stage. The weekend culminates with the big, corporate Pride March and its younger, pissed off sibling, the Queer Liberation March — both in Manhattan. Whether you’re going to party or protest with the queers, make sure to lather on some sun screen. This weekend will be in the mid-80s.

If you’re still dehydrated from donning your fursuit at Car Seat Headrest’s Brooklyn Magazine Festival show, check out our just launched “Brooklyn’s 50 Most Fascinating People of 2022” online, or pick it up a hot-off-the-presses at your favorite spot around town.

Here’s what’s happening this weekend in the borough:

Friday, June 24

Let’s all go to the movies!
All weekend, various showtimes
BAMcinemaFest returns in person this year for the first time since 2019. Previous incarnations of the festival hosted a few splashy screenings with celebrities and picking from film festivals across the country. This year, the festival returns with an updated vision: featuring “blazingly personal works by filmmakers who have defied industry odds to realize their singular visions.” While the festival won’t be crawling with celebrities, Brooklyn filmmakers will make their presence known with projects like “Free Chol Soo Lee” and “Ferny & Luca.” Come out for the best in truly independent cinema at BAM Rose Cinemas, running through June 30.

Really gay movies
9 p.m.
The Bushwick bar/theater/restaurant Syndicated wants to help show your Pride with three outdoor screenings as part of their Sidewalk Cinema. Movies are projected on the Thames Street side of their building, screenings are free but first-come, first-served and they begin at 9 p.m. On Friday, you can catch the drag classic “Paris is Burning,” “Handmaiden” on Saturday, and “But I’m a Cheerleader” on Sunday. Screenings happen rain or shine, as the seating area is covered for the full table-service experience of Syndicated’s indoor experience, outdoors.

A festival of photos
All day, all weekend
Over 40 photography exhibits from artists across the world are on display one last weekend at Brooklyn Bridge Park for the 11th annual Photoville Festival, going through Sunday, June 26. This year is the first time in over a decade that Photoville happens as a summer festival, so soak up some rays with artist-led walking tours, a photo booth, and workshops. The festival is free, and food vendors from Smorgaborg will be on hand when you need to cool off.

Saturday, June 25

Support Black women (authors)
1 to 5 p.m.
The Free Black Women’s Library will celebrate black women authors with a free book swap at 226 Marcus Garvey Blvd. Bring a book by an author to trade. Your book helps build the library’s archive of 4,000 fiction and non-fiction books by diverse Black women. This summer, the library will introduce the Reading Room, a literary hub, co-working space, and central location for the collection and to host events.

Bushwig x Gardens Pride 2022: Flowers
3 to 10 p.m.
If you’re looking for drag that’s more risque than the girls on “Drag Race,” then get to The Ruins at Knockdown Center on Saturday for Bushwig x Gardens Pride 2022. Shows by Essa Noche, Jenn D’Role, Warhola Pop and more will fill your cup with puns ahead of the big Bushwig show in September. Get dirty to a DJ set by Boyz II Them and real house music DJ Patti Kane. You’ll probably hear Beyonce’s new bop, and it won’t even be the best song of the night. Tickets are $35 and come ready to sweat.

It’s Pretty Major to see Julio Torres on Pride weekend
6:30 p.m. doors, 7 p.m. show
Jay Jurden and Zach Zimmerman will be doing their Pretty Major comedy show, normally on Tuesdays, this Saturday at The Bell House in Gowanus (149 7th Street). What’s more, Greenpoint-based comedian Julio Torres will perform at this special Pride edition of the show. Torres released his first children’s book, “I Want to Be A Vase,” about a toilet plunger with an identity crisis, just this month. Comedians Dylan Adler, Robby Hoffman, and Kate Sisk round out the showcase of queer comedians that only cost $10. Proof of full vaccination is required for entry to Union Hall. The event will be mixed seated/standing so arrive early to nab the best seat.

Sunday, June 26

This Cyclone is 95 years old
11 a.m. and forever
Coney Island’s famous Cyclone rollercoaster turns 95 on this weekend. To celebrate New York City’s most famous roller coaster, Luna Park will allow the first 95 guests in line to ride for free on Sunday when the park opens at 11 a.m. Alessandro Zamperla, owner of Luna Park, will celebrate the occasion with a toast and cake cutting, with slices for everyone. The celebration continues with balloon art, face painting, caricature artists, and stilt walkers. It’s the party of the summer your kids, and inner child, won’t want to miss.

Brunch with a shell on the silver screen
12:05 p.m.
Brooklyn-born “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On” gets the big screen treatment, and to celebrate, the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema will host a special brunch time screening on Sunday. You can order an Egg BLT, French Toast, or Breakfast Tacos, along with lunch items, and have them brought to your seat during the screening. Alamo is known for their fun pre-show videos, and we bet Marcel’s super viral Youtube videos and work by his creators, Jenny Slate and Dean Fleischer-Camp, will make the cut. Bring the kids to this family friendly screening of the bravest little shell you ever did see.

NYC Pride March 2022
12 p.m.
It’s been three whole years since the classic NYC Pride March could gather fully in person for the annual gathering of revelry and Bank of America floats. And as the storm clouds lift, it’s the first Pride March without Bill De Blasio in eight years. New mayor Eric Adams has been critical of parade organizers Heritage of Pride banning cops from the event for the second year in a row. That said, Adams announced $6.7 million in new funding for queer causes in the city. Anyway! The Pride March stretches between Fifth Avenue and 25th Street in Manhattan and ends in Chelsea at Seventh Avenue and 16th Street.

2022 Queer Liberation March
1 to 5 p.m.
The Queer Liberation March for Trans and BIPoC Freedom, Reproductive Justice & Bodily Autonomy, or the Queer Liberation March for short, coincides with the Pride March this Sunday. Event organizers say “We dispense with parading in our effort to reclaim Pride from the corporations, the cops and self-promoting politicians.” In 2020, when the Pride March was cancelled, the Queer Liberation March partnered with allies Black Lives Matter and held an impromptu march that sucked the wind out of Heritage of Pride’s sails. The Queer Liberation March’s success in 2020 influenced the Pride March to drop police presence in 2021 and 2022, but it actually made the Pride March radical chic; as in radical in name only. Still, there’s room for both.