The Outloud at WeHo Pride music festival will take over West Hollywood Park from Friday through June 4, and according to founder and creator Jeff Consoletti, the three-day LGBTQ+ event feels “bigger and better than ever, including all colors of the rainbow.”

Since 1979, West Hollywood has served as a center of Los Angeles pride events, with local restaurants, bars and other businesses taking part in the festivities for the entire month of June. And since 2020, the Outloud fest, which launched virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic, has spotlighted queer talent.

Outloud kicks off with a free show Friday featuring Broadway sensation Idina Menzel, plus Jessie Ware, Tinashe, Jordy, Tolliver, Venessa Michaels and Shangela, a drag superstar from “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”

Saturday’s ticketed event will be led by model, singer and all-around pop culture icon Grace Jones, with support from country singer-songwriter Orville Peck, Santigold, Yung Bae, Jodie Harsh and more. June 4 will feature sets by “Call Me Maybe” pop singer-songwriter Carly Rae Jepsen, pop band Passion Pit, Princess Nokia, Drama and others.“I’m really proud of what we’ve been able to put together in terms of big names mixed with emerging talent,” Consoletti said during a recent Zoom interview. “We pay particular attention to what I like to describe as ‘all of the colors of the rainbow,’ whatever that means to anyone. Whether it’s the LGBTQIA+ community or wherever people might fall in that spectrum, which I think makes this community so vibrant, that’s what we pay attention to. Yes, we’re diverse. Yes, we have a good mix of things. But at the end of the day, it’s mostly about ensuring authentic queerness and talent.”

Consoletti, who runs JJLA, an event production company based in Los Angeles, has been producing Pride month and LGBTQ+ events for more than two decades, making his eye for talent and representation keen in the West Hollywood community.

However, forming JJLA in 2009 was challenging, he said, noting that the pride market was only beginning to boom and barely staying afloat with city funding. Yet, it didn’t stop him from making calls around the clock to book LGBTQ+ artists. That same determination led to the company’s more recent boom in growth as it now employs a full-blown team to produce some of the most significant events for the LGBTQ+ community, including landing Madonna as a headliner for New York City’s World Pride in 2019.

Back in 2020, when the inaugural Outloud was forced to swiftly pivot to a virtual event, producers created Outloud: Raising Voices, which ran as a 10-part digital concert series. The following year, Outloud partnered with the livestreaming service Twitch and singer Adam Lambert for a three-day Pride concert event held at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum with performances by Lambert, Sofi Tukker, Hayley Kiyoko, Kim Petras and more.

The stakes were higher the following year, Consoletti said, as the event grew and the 2022 lineup featured Jessie J, LP Giobbi, Marina, Lil’ Kim, CupCakke, Aluna and others. This year, he had his sights set on booking Grace Jones, an act he felt would bring together multiple generations. Winning Jones over, he said, was a big feat. Once Jones was in, the other acts more easily followed.

“It’s a mix of right timing and right place,” he said. “The stars aligned and from there, we could put the missing pieces together in terms of the bill. We wanted to look at who was having a moment and who was making an impact in the community. We knew we wanted to go legendary with acts like Grace, but we also wanted to showcase pop and different genres. But more importantly, it’s awesome to book these younger and emerging artists that get to say they are on the same bill as Grace Jones and Orville Peck. I’m so proud that we get to do that for them.”

Several other events are part of the overall WeHo Pride weekend, including the WeHo Pride Street Fair, which will close down Santa Monica Boulevard to showcase over 100 vendors, sponsors, community programs, food trucks, DJs and even carnival-style rides and games Saturday and June 4. There’s also a Women’s Festival and Dyke March on Saturday, and the WeHo Pride Parade with music, dancing and floats on June 4.

All of this builds up to the big L.A. Pride weekend with L.A. Pride in the Park from June 9-10 with Mariah Carey and Megan Thee Stallion at Los Angeles State Historic Park, and the L.A. Pride Parade, which takes place at 11 a.m. June 11 on Sunset Boulevard.

“There’s so much for fans to look forward to during pride season, and we’re just grateful to be a part of it,” Consoletti said. “We have a lot of big ideas for Outloud and we just try to keep them churning and see how it develops into the next big thing for the brand while still keeping our message alive and well.”