Last Updated on June 27, 2024, 12:45 PM | Published: June 25, 2024
OKLAHOMA CITY — As June begins drawing to a close, all eyes in Oklahoma City turn to PrideFest 2024 for the last and biggest blowout of Pride Month.
Presented by the city-spanning OKC Pride Alliance, the festival is set to celebrate the full spectrum of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community throughout this weekend, June 28th through 30th.
Taking over the wide sprawl of Scissortail Park each year, the event brings together arts, parades, family programming, education, outreach, and of course, all the music and dancing you could ever ask for, with two stages keeping the party moving all weekend long.
The stacked lineup boasts act after act of the best drag performers, dance groups, and national personalities, all crowned by festival headliner and royal icon of the New Orleans Bounce style, Big Freedia closing out the opening night on Friday.
But the three-day bill also features an exciting and diverse selection of wave-making local artists, with sounds spanning free-flowing pop, danceable trance, big Broadway soul, and even the glammest of glam-rock.
Here are just a few of the can’t-miss locals on stage this weekend at PrideFest 2024.
DJ Robin Rhoades
Essentially the house DJ of the weekend, Robin Rhoades appears on the lineup no fewer than three separate times, kicking off the festivities on the Love is Love Stage and then soundtracking the hotly anticipated Drag Hour on both Friday and Saturday.
Rhoades is set to bring the same fiery electro energy that she’s been pouring into regular sets at Point A and recent spots all over the Metro at Resonant Head, Ponyboy, and Opolis.
Expect a wild, body-moving combo of house, trance, disco, and hopefully also some of the chiller, lo-fi beats that have defined some of her gallery sets.
Pineapple Willows
These Moore/Norman-ites are making some of the state’s best loose, summery pop-rock right now, and their breezy, fluid, and energetic sound should fit perfectly under the late June sun on the smaller Pride Stage on Saturday afternoon.
Their easy-going bedroom pop sound is punctuated by moments of bouncing punk-rock energy and shockingly hooky guitar solos, and as one of the most productive and rapidly prolific acts on the scene right now, they’ll have plenty of examples to pull from.
Still fresh off the release of their fantastically fun full-length “Pixelated Memories” at the beginning of this month, they’ll already be bringing loads of new tracks set to appear on a quickly upcoming EP looking to drop in July.
The Muffled Sirens
If you’ve been needing more of that classic piano/guitar-driven drama of the best T. Rex and Roxy Music, then OKC’s own glam-rock gate-crashers The Muffled Sirens are what you’ve been waiting for.
Hot off a major buzzy, outdoor Norman Music Festival set that saw them collecting praise as one of the most exciting and bold acts on the bill, The Muffled Sirens are set to bring the same histrionic fashion and soaring, searing rock delivery to the PrideFest main stage.
With singer/songwriter Gavin Taylor becoming quickly established as one of the most charismatic and classically styled rock frontmen that OKC has seen in a long while, this primetime Friday evening slot is bound to be epic.
Cheyanne Marie
It’s already likely to be hot at 1:00 PM in June, but it’s going to get even hotter as soon as Cheyanne Marie hits the stage and unleashes her staggering voice.
An award-winning singer, acclaimed musical theatre star, music and voice teacher, and red-hot R&B firebrand, Marie has been stirring up practically every avenue of vocal performance and stage domination.
Marie has a deep well to pull from for her Saturday afternoon spot on the Love is Love main stage, with a full catalog of showtunes, soulful pop covers, and her own sultry tracks like recent bangers “I Wonder” and “No Love Left Behind” all at her disposal.
For more information about PrideFest 2024, including the full lineup of musical acts and performers, visit okcpridealliance.org.
And … This!
PrideFest isn’t the only musical extravaganza set to take over Scissortail Park over the next week.
The summer is flying by and barreling fast toward Independence Day next Wednesday, and of course in OKC, that always means the Oklahoma City Philharmonic’s annual “Red, White, and Boom” event, bringing the biggest American marches and classics to Scissortail’s Great Lawn.
This year, the orchestra will be joined by guest vocalist Audrey Logan and Jay Gleason, one of the scene’s most accomplished and impressive guitar masters, hot off work with Lyric Theatre and head-spinningly intricate prog-rockers Local Man Ruins Everything.
Oh, and fireworks, of course.
For more information about “Red, White, and Boom,” and the OKC Philharmonic’s upcoming 2024-25 season launching in the fall, visit okcphil.org.
You can find out about local music and performance happenings in the OKC metro weekly in this music column by Brett Fieldcamp. | Brought to you by True Sky Credit Union.
Brett Fieldcamp has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly 15 years, writing for several local and state publications. He’s also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.