Todrick Hall and Pussy Riot Headline an Amazing Night of St. Pete Pride

By Brian Craig & Randy Cook

Florida’s largest LGBTQ+ Pride celebration in St. Petersburg, FL is back and bigger than ever for the 20^th anniversary of St. Pete Pride Month. Prior to the world shutting down for the COVID pandemic, the last iteration of this event’s parade drew over 265K attendees. This year’s celebration is sure to top that attendance number with the 2022 Florida legislation prohibiting instruction related to gender identity or sexual orientation in kindergarten through third grade, dubbed the “Don’t say gay” bill by opponents, Florida has made a lot of news in the LGBTQ+ community this year. Then earlier in the day of the concert, the US Supreme Court decision regarding a woman’s right to abortion sent shockwaves through the entire country and from what I witnessed in the crowd at the show was it just strengthened people’s resolve to come together even more as a group and have their rights protected and their voices heard.  

This year’s waterfront concert featured international talent and American Idol alum Todrick Hall as the headliner, Russian feminist protest and performance art group Pussy Riot in direct support, and some of the region’s top LGBTQ+ artists round out this concert event.  Held on Friday, June 25^th in the beautiful outdoor area around the St. Pete Pier’s Spa Beach, thousands of attendees to the show enjoyed the waterfront, the camaraderie of one another sharing the reason of coming together for an event such as this and enjoyed vendors, food trucks and interactive activities.

 Unfortunately Mother Nature decided to spoil the party for a little over an hour with a quick moving storm and soon the venue was re-opened however a few of the local acts had to be scratched to accommodate the time schedule, which I figured was relating to the city’s noise ordinance and how late it would be if the schedule picked up where it left off.

In those few minutes before we were told that the show’s resumption would be with Pussy Riot just a few minutes away, I asked “where’s the drum kit?” only seeing a table at the back of the stage with a laptop on it. To say I was expecting a band to play would only show how little I knew of this band’s music. The organizers of the event then brought up to the stage the local performers whose sets were bumped due to the weather and announced they would be playing the next day before the parade.

Pussy Riot became a household name after the band’s staged performance inside Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ in February 2012, becoming renowned for staging ad hoc performances in unusual places. They are a collective feminist protest and performance art ensemble popular for their punk sound. Which is what I was expecting, some rebellious angry punk music.

They have been surrounded by controversy ever since that performance for protesting Orthodox Church leaders’ support for (Russian President) Vladimir Putin during his election campaign.  This collective has over 100 members and the one and only original performer from the band playing this evening was lead musician Nadya Tolokonnikova. She was sentenced to two years in prison by Russian Authorities for hooliganism after her band’s church performance.

Nadya used her sultriness to sing and dance both to the crowd and her ‘band mates’, often stopping in her tracks to admire an even photo/video the weapon wielding, masked, and schoolgirl outfit clad ladies with her phone, dancing to the beat. She would set the music at the back of the stage and then slink her way around the masked ladies, eventually finding herself at the front of the stage proactively singing, and many times spinning around to take photos of her stage mates as well as a selfie with the crowd behind her.

Being a metalhead at heart I would have to say my favorite part of their performance was the sampled in System of a Down song that led into their original as I could see from the crowd I was not alone in headbanging at hat part and I saw many horns in the air at that point.

Totally not what I expected going into the show but their performance was highly entertaining, the crowd absolutely loved every minute and I have to say that more than once I was captivated by what I was seeing on stage. 

Todrick Hall’s rise to fame has included initially performing on weekends at an amusement park near his family home as a teenager, to performing on various cruise lines, auditioning and being cast as an understudy on Broadway to winning the third season of American Idol. He is also a social media star, captivating his growing number of followers with videos of his original music as well as organizing and choreographing flash mobs performing other major stars’ songs. This is his first time performing for the St. Pete Pride Festival.

Todrick’s set was a visual extravaganza with multiple outfit changes and six dancers in and among him so there was usually a stage full of color and movement. He commanded the crowd who seemed to know every beat, bass drop and word to his songs. He brought up on stage his hair and makeup artist who went on to show off her own dance moves and in between songs Todrick shared positive messages about believing in yourself and who you are.

While this was a highly politically charged day and year, the performers wanted to make it more about the music and togetherness of why we all gathered here this evening. Nadya called for peace in Ukraine and death to Russian President Vladimir Putin, while Todrick was all about the fellowship of the Pride community, being true to yourself and to follow your dreams.

Overall this event was a great success and lead into a massively packed parade the next day with what I expect will be record breaking crowds announced. Thousands were on hand, braving the heat for the celebration that was 3 years in the making since the last event’s parade. What a great weekend. Pride staff, support staff, security, St Pete PD and everyone attending were awesome. This had to be the most diverse gathering of people that I’ve ever been immersed in – age, race, sex, opinions, religions, beliefs; etc. great to see everyone who was there, for a purpose or just to have fun and enjoy live music, entertainment, food and drinks – get along so well.