National Coming Out Day Celebration Planned for Memorial Park Band Shell

For a couple of hours on Saturday, the historic band shell at Memorial Park will become a gathering place for music, crafts and conversation, as the City marks National Coming Out Day with a celebration open to people of all ages.

According to the City of Pasadena’s announcement, the event is meant to mark the anniversary of National Coming Out Day and to reflect what the City describes as its effort to celebrate and foster an inclusive community.

It is presented by three city departments — Pasadena Public Health, the Pasadena Public Library, and Pasadena Parks, Recreation and Community Services. The City says the program will include music, resource tables, a car display, crafts and giveaways. The City says all are welcome.

National Coming Out Day has been observed nationally on October 11 since 1988, when psychologist Robert Eichberg and activist Jean O’Leary founded it to mark the anniversary of the 1987 Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. The observance rests on the founders’ belief that coming out — being visible — is itself a basic form of activism. Pasadena’s gathering falls on the Saturday of that weekend.

The Memorial Park band shell was built in 1930 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Pasadena Civic Center Historic District. It is an Art Deco structure known locally as the “Gold Shell.”

The event details in this account come from the City of Pasadena’s public announcement, which as of publication had not included a program schedule or a list of speakers for the 2026 gathering.

Pasadena’s National Coming Out Day celebration is set for Saturday, October 10, from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the Memorial Park Band Shell, 85 East Holly Street. The nearest transit is the Metro A Line’s Memorial Park station, at 125 East Holly Street. The City’s announcement did not specify an admission cost, on-site parking, or a phone number or website for more information.

National Coming Out Day began on a single idea: that being visible, out in the open, is its own kind of change. On Saturday, that will play out on a park lawn in the middle of Pasadena.