Over the weekend, OUTLOUD brought West Hollywood two days of self-expression, love, vibrant music, and an abundance of audience participation. The fest kicked off on Pride Month Eve with Kesha giving her first performance as a “free motherfucking woman,” and ended the following night by treating fans to Kylie Minogue performing her upcoming single “Midnight Ride” with Orville Peck and Diplo (that wasn’t the only new music we got this weekend, as other artists to premiere unreleased songs included Keke Palmer, Adam Lambert, Channel Tres, Vanessa Michaels, and Hannah Rad).

Kesha’s encore was a stunner, as she came out in a black leather jacket studded with the word “FREEDOM” on the back for a stripped-down version of “Praying” that had the crowd in tears before ending the evening by bringing out a drumline, all the drag performers who opened the evening, as well as a blowup penis for “We R Who We R.”

The fest was full of surprise guests, kicking off when Jessica Betts had her wife Niecy Nash join her on stage. Later in the weekend, Diplo brought out Bebe Rexha, Pony, and Symone, as well as his warm-up act Big Freedia, while Janelle Monáe was joined by Doechii before bringing up Queen Latifah and Gabrielle Union along with a bunch of audience members to dance with her.

Throughout the weekend we saw many fans being brought on stage, including about two dozen audience members joining Big Freedia for a twerk showcase. Some fans even forced the spotlight on themselves: When Monét X Change called a few people up for a dance-off, one drunk man dragged his ass up on stage despite not being called on and proceeded to give the worst dance of the opening night—but owned it—despite Monét’s looks of horror and embarrassment.

Among Saturday’s non-musical highlights was a rousing on-stage speech by Janelle Monáe about how the LGBTQ+ community always comes out for other marginalized communities and needs to stand up for the people of Palestine as well as Darfur, Sudan, and Congo. “Free Palestine” was a theme throughout the weekend—while some artists like Yaeji also gave quick shout to Palestine, and some of the fest’s attendees had red/green/white/black face paint on, most of the real demonstrations were outside OUTLOUD on the grounds of the WeHo Pride Steet Fair and parade.

Elsewhere on Saturday, Keke Palmer opened her set as a part of a fictional girl group, “Diva Gurl From Underground Records,” while dancefloor-murderess Sophie Ellis-Bextor proved she understood the assignment by playing her hits and covering both ABBA and Madonna before ending her set with her recently revived 2001 hit single (in the VIP area, you could see a group of friends rocking out with glitter antlers, á la Saltburn).

Another highlight arrived on Sunday, when June 2 was officially declared Kylie Minogue Day in the city of West Hollywood, with Kylie having a street named after her: Kylie Minogue Way. Among other non-musical-performance draws were watching artists like Crystal Waters and Kiesza slay their mini-sets at the SUMMERTRAMP dance stage that primarily featured local DJs like Daisy O’Dell spinning the best party and makeout tracks all weekend. Additionally, having Laganja Estranja and Morphine Love Dion lip-sync battle to Ru Paul and Dua Lipa tracks was peak entertainment.

OUTLOUD, the music festival associated with West Hollywood’s Pride street fair, was started in 2022 when post-pandemic LA Pride moved from WeHo to Downtown Los Angeles, taking its music festival with it. OUTLOUD was originally an online digital music series launched during COVID lockdown in 2020 and evolved over the last four years. The identity is slightly different than when it was run by LA Pride, as the festival primarily focuses on the music connection to the LGBTQ+ experience, while the LA Pride festival at this location used to feature a tent promoting local dungeons, BDSM toys, and leather supplies, along with a smaller, darker dance music side-stage with lots of overt makeout sessions.

As OUTLOUD continues to grow, it will be exciting to see who the festival books next. It’s one of the most loving, gentle crowds—despite plenty of alcohol and drug consumption, there were no fights or any of the stress that sometimes comes with large music festivals. It was just like being at a great party thrown by a friend of a friend where you’re constantly meeting new people, running into friends you haven’t seen in ages, and having a perfect soundtrack to dance to at all times.