Her audience reached toward her with adoring hands. She was wearing a see-through shirt with pasties covering her nipples and tight, spangled, rainbow-colored briefs. Shortly before 9 p.m., Tove Lo, the Swedish pop singer/songwriter emerged from clouds of multi-colored mist on the LED-lit stage and strutted back and forth on a platform that extended into the crowd. Tickets for the pier cost as much or more than a prime seat for a Broadway show. In the privacy of the guarded pier, all forms of dress and undress were acceptable. People were drinking and dancing and chatting and flirting. Loudspeakers flanked a stage, blasting music. On this warm, summer evening, the mood was upbeat and cheerful. The huge pier was crowded, but not as crowded as it would be the next day when people would flock here following the Gay Pride Parade. This was the second year for Pride Island, formerly known as Dance on the Pier and for more than 30 years located on a pier in Greenwich Village or Tribeca. No one could enter without a ticket or media credentials. June 23, 2018: I could hear Pride Island before I could see it.įrom more than a block away on the Hudson River Park Greenway, an insistent bass beat announced that I was close to Pier 97, the midtown Manhattan location of the two-day festival preceding and accompanying New York City’s annual Gay Pride Parade.īarricades and guards stood at the entrance.
