Phoenix's Pride has a new home, and it's right in the middle of the city's most recognizable LGBTQ+ stretch. The Pride in Melrose Festival took over the Melrose District on Saturday, October 10, from noon to 6 pm, turning a couple of Seventh Avenue bars into a community hub for the afternoon. It was free and family-friendly, which is a nice touch for an event that leans on the neighborhood's nightlife.
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The festival sat at Title 9 Sports Grill and its neighbor, Boycott Bar, at 4221 N. 7th Ave. Put together by the Melrose District community and Audrey Corley, it ran a community stage with live entertainment, kid-friendly activities, and a line of local vendors. The two bars at the center of it all are worth knowing, because they're more than just festival sites. Title 9 Sports Grill, which opened in March 2025, is Phoenix's first women-focused sports bar, with screens running WNBA and NWSL games and a kitchen that does takeout and delivery. Boycott Bar, just down the street at 4301 N. 7th Ave., is the only lesbian bar in Phoenix and one of only 38 left in the country. Audrey Corley, who also co-founded Title 9, has run Boycott since 2004 and moved it to the Melrose District in 2017, into a building that had been operating as a bar since the 1980s. It's a 21+ spot known for drag shows, gothic burlesque, and community events, and it's picked up Bar of the Year in 2024 and the Phoenix Mercury Believe in Women award in 2025.
There were a couple of moments that gave the day some shape. At 2 pm, Title 9 held a Hot Wing Challenge, with $500 going to the first person to finish 15 spicy wings clean to the bone. Boycott Bar ran a singing competition, though the time on that one was left to be decided. For anyone who wanted to sell something, non-food vendor spots were $50, with the proceeds going to a local LGBTQ+ organization.
None of this would make much sense without the neighborhood itself. The Melrose District, which people call Phoenix's gayborhood, sits on the curved stretch of Seventh Avenue north of Indian School Road — the stretch known as The Curve — and it's easy to spot, with rainbow flags, murals, and the rainbow crosswalk outside Boycott Bar. Phoenix is also the place where the transgender flag was created. The city's original gay district was downtown around Roosevelt and Portland streets, where the scene had been going since the 1950s, but that original Roosevelt neighborhood faded around 2015 as people moved out to Melrose, where bars had been opening since the late 1970s and early 1980s. Phoenix doesn't have one single central LGBTQ+ neighborhood, but the Melrose District has the highest concentration of friendly businesses in town. The Melrose Community Alliance, founded in 2018, brings the residents and merchants together, and the Melrose Gateway Arch marks the start of the district as you head north on 7th Avenue from Indian School Road.
