Several banners forming a 1,000-foot Progress Pride flag covered the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art last Friday morning, as activists marked the beginning of the city’s Pride Month celebrations.
The powerful display was organised by Philly Pride 365, the city’s lead Pride event organiser, ahead of Philadelphia’s official Pride parade and events on Sunday.
This year’s celebrations were held under the theme “Pride Is Power.”
“It’s a symbol of visibility, symbol of unity, symbol of hope for many different communities that are looking for hope in this moment, looking for a beacon of hope, and seeing what other marginalized communities are doing right now to unite, to build solidarity, and really show what a movement of hope, love, and joy can do,” Philly Pride 365 founder and CEO Tyrell Brown told KYW-TV on the morning of the flag’s unveiling.
Helicopter footage captured five long Pride banners unfurling along the museum’s famous front steps.
The banners were modified versions of the Philadelphia Pride flag, featuring the six rainbow colours along with black and brown stripes, as well as the colours of the trans Pride flag.
The banners also appeared in the official parade on Sunday, which drew thousands of people into the city.
Pride flags keep getting bigger
The Philadelphia display is part of a growing wave of large-scale Pride flag moments around the world, as LGBTQ+ activists use size, visibility and public space to send powerful messages of solidarity.
In May 2025, environmentalist and drag activist Pattie Gonia, alongside other trans allies, displayed the largest transgender Pride flag ever flown in a national park.
The 55 x 35 foot flag was hung from the side of El Capitan in California’s Yosemite National Park as an act of trans solidarity. It remained in place for several hours before being taken down.
This year, a group of trans activists in Australia unfurled an 8,400-square-foot trans Pride flag in a suburb of Brisbane for Trans Day of Visibility, making it the largest trans Pride flag so far.
On 22 June 2025, around 5,000 LGBTQ+ activists in Mexico City reportedly set a world record by forming the largest-ever human Pride flag in Zócalo, the city’s central main square.
Each participant wore a T-shirt in one of the traditional Pride flag’s six colours, carried a matching umbrella, and moved to “A quién le importa” by Alaska and Dinarama. The display filled the plaza and lasted for two hours.
Meanwhile, the world’s largest projected Pride flag has been a 4.1-mile laser projection in San Francisco.
Displayed annually during the city’s official Pride weekend by Illuminate and NuSalt Laser International, the six-coloured beams light up Market Street from the Ferry Building between 8pm and 10pm.
The world’s largest fabric Pride flag measures 1.25 miles long, spans 14 blocks and weighs three tons.
It was displayed during Key West Pride to mark the 25th anniversary of the original rainbow flag. Designed by Pride flag creator Gilbert Baker, it restored Baker’s original eight-colour design, including hot pink and turquoise.
For Philadelphia, the 1,000-foot Progress Pride flag was more than a spectacle. It was a declaration of visibility, resistance and collective joy at a time when many LGBTQ+ communities are facing renewed political and social attacks.
