California’s First Pride Celebration of the Year, Presented By Agua Caliente Casinos
Featuring Live Performances, Parade and Bed Race, Champagne Brunch Bash, Free Community Outdoor Film Screening of The Birdcage, Comedy Show at Agua Caliente Casino Cathedral City headlined by River Butcher, Bar Events and More…
As California’s first Pride event of the year, the 8th annual Cathedral City LGBT Days presented by Agua Caliente Casinos again brings together numerous LGBTQ+ celebrities, artists, performers, media, community leaders, Coachella Valley residents and visitors for an unforgettable weekend of live entertainment, community engagement and fun activities from March 8th-10th, 2024.
Friday March 8th features the official Pride flag raising and lighting of City Hall beginning at 5:55PM. Doors open at 6:00PM for a 6:30PM community film screening of Mike Nichols’ classic The Birdcage under the stars at the Cathedral City Community Amphitheater. In the film starring Robin Williams, Gene Hackman, Nathan Lane, Dianne Wiest and Calista Flockhart, a gay cabaret owner and his drag queen companion agree to put up a false straight front so that their son can introduce them to his fiancée’s right-wing moralistic parents. The Birdcage screening is free to the public; register for film tickets here. Bars throughout Cathedral City will host LGBT Days specials following the screening and all weekend.
Saturday’s festivities include a headline comedy show starring River Butcher taking place at the Agave Caliente Terraza, the outdoor entertainment pavilion at Agua Caliente Casino Cathedral City. Los Angeles-based standup comic, actor, and writer Butcher’s first half-hour special “A Different Kind of Dude” debuted on Comedy Central’s YouTube channel and was called “a masterclass in culture war commentary” by Esquire.com. River recently wrote on the FX pilot “Belated,” previously wrote for “A League of Their Own,” and created/starred in/wrote the critically acclaimed and GLAAD award-nominated tv show “Take My Wife.” He’s also been on screen as non-binary standup comic Lindsay Brady on “Good Trouble,” Adam Conover’s sibling on “Adam Ruins Everything” or queer dinner guest Denim in the hit movie “Friendsgiving.” Butcher’s done standup all over the globe and the screen and was named one of Vanity Fair’s “Ten Comics to Watch” at Montreal’s Just For Laughs/Juste Pour Rire in 2017, just 6 years after doing his first standup open mic. He’s just recorded his first one-hour special in Portland, set to be released on YouTube this year. Get tickets here.
The weekend concludes on Sunday March 10th with the annual Bed Race and Parade of Beds in front of City Hall starting at 10:00AM, where thousands of well-wishers line up to cheer on teams running festively decorated beds down Avenue Lalo Guerrero, competing for prizes and local infamy; admission is free and open to the public. The Bed Race will be emceed by local talent and accompanied by live entertainment including Madonna tribute act Blonde Ambition. After the Bed Race, Cathedral City LGBT Days will host a noon Champagne Sunday Brunch featuring top DJs, champagne, drink specials, exclusive vendors, and gourmet food trucks on hand for all attendees to close out the weekend in style.
“Cathedral City is always excited to celebrate our vibrant LGBTQ+ community with our annual weekend full of arts, culture, dynamic programming, and our popular Sunday Bed Race,” said Ryan Hunt, Communications & Events Manager for the City of Cathedral City. “Our community is valued and respected as a place that welcomes and embraces diversity, and LGBT Days is a shining example of this continued mission by our Communications & Events Department and city leadership.”
“Agua Caliente Casinos is proud to be the presenting sponsor of Cathedral City LGBT Days, a three-day event filled with entertainment, laughs, mingling, and of course, the infamous bed race,” shared Todd Berendji, Sr. Vice President and General Manager. “We’re excited to host the official Cathedral City LGBT Days comedy show on Saturday, featuring headline comedian River Butcher. We’ll also have a great Happy Hour in the Tequila Bar, leading up to the comedy show.”
Additional activities will be announced weekly, with information posted on official social media channels (@CathedralCityLGBTDays) and the official website. The event welcomes community participation and is currently accepting applications for the Bed Race and Parade, sponsors, vendors, volunteers and performing talent. Please apply here.
For the third year in a row, Cathedral City LGBT Days is produced by Soundskilz Productions, a national entertainment production agency headquartered in Temecula, CA.
About Agua Caliente Casinos
Agua Caliente Casinos are located in Rancho Mirage, Palm Springs, and Cathedral City, CA. Agua Caliente Casinos has earned the Forbes Travel Guide Awards for its fifth consecutive year in 2024 for three of its property venues. Agua Caliente Resort Casino Spa Rancho Mirage has been awarded two Forbes Four-Star ratings for The Steakhouse and The Hotel, with Sunstone Spa earning the Forbes Five-Star Award in 2024. Agua Caliente Rancho Mirage is also a AAA Four Diamond property and was ranked top 5 for “Best Casino Outside of Las Vegas” in Newsweek in 2023. The Sunstone Spa also ranked in the top spas in the U.S. and number three in California by Spas of America’s Top 100 Spas 2022; The Steakhouse is a consecutive winner of the Wine Spectator Award of Excellence since 2007; and Agua Caliente is the only hotel in Greater Palm Springs to have achieved Forbes Four-Star status. The Spa at Séc-he in downtown Palm Springs opened in 2023 and won the Sustainable Spa Award by the Green Spa Network and the Best of the Best by Palm Springs Life along with being named the No. 1 Spa in America by Spas of America in 2023. Agua Caliente Casinos took the lead in two categories of Best Desert Sun Community’s Choice Awards, ranked Best Casino in Palm Springs and Best Hotel in Rancho Mirage.
Collectively, the three properties offer a 16-story, 340-room hotel with resort-style pools and cabanas, three entertainment venues, Pívat Cigar Lounge, a premier cigar lounge offering live table games and slot machines, 13 diverse dining options, a multi-award-winning, full-service luxury spa and salon, meeting and event venues, and Agua Caliente Fuel, an expansive fuel station with 750 square feet of gaming machines, a drive-through coffee shop Java Caliente, and competitive gas prices. Agua Caliente is also home to two nearby championship golf courses: Indian Canyons North and South.
For more information on Agua Caliente Casinos, visit www.aguacalientecasinos.com or join the conversation on Instagram @aguacalientecasinos.
Who We Are: Cathedral City
Cathedral City takes its name from Col. Henry Washington of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, who in 1850 noted the area’s canyons resembled the interior of a grand cathedral. The name stuck; in 1925, developers named the area’s first subdivision Cathedral City, California. After living in the area for millennia, the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians established their reservation in the Coachella Valley 1876, which comprises approximately 28% of Cathedral City.
Incorporated in 1981—later than its neighbors—Cathedral City is dedicated to providing a quality lifestyle and welcoming business climate. Cathedral City represents about ten percent of The Coachella Valley’s population and is a destination of friendly neighborhoods, lush country clubs, diverse shopping, and unlimited business potential.
Cathedral city is the fastest-growing among the desert cities, boasting higher growth in “snowbird” and full-time resident populations and economic indices than its neighbors—yet remains a great value. Many people across the nation know about Palm Springs, but more and more people are discovering that Cathedral City has become a great destination for the LGBT community to live, dine, stay and play!
