Make Them Stop, Look & Join In: From Guard Closet to the Giant Philadelphia Progress Pride Flag
By Jeremy Williams, Owner/CEO of GuardCloset.com and Producer of PhillyPride365
One of the biggest lessons I learned in event production came from my amazing mentor, Todd Marcocci of Under the Sun Productions — (and sooooo much more) He taught me, if you want press for your event, don't wait around for someone else to create the story. You create the moment. You build something visual, memorable, emotional, and big enough that people cannot ignore it.
That idea has followed me through almost every part of my professional life. I started working in large-scale parade and event production in the late 1990s — or, as we now apparently say, the late 1900s.
I have had the chance to work on events including the Welcome America July 4th Parade in Philadelphia (Even the AMAZING 250th Birthday Celebration with the Salute to Independence Semiquincentennial Parade), the 6ABC Thanksgiving Day Parade, the National Memorial Day Parade in Washington, DC, the National Independence Day Parade, Millennium Philadelphia, the Lighted Boat Parade, the Boy Scouts of America 100th Anniversary Parade, the West Chester Olde Fashioned Christmas Parade, the Hershey Centennial Grande Feature Parade, and the Miss America Show Us Your Shoes Parade, Philadelphia Mummers Parade & Fancy Brigades.
And then there are all the smaller events in and around those parades — the ones that may not always make the resume but absolutely teach you how events really work. I have learned not just the logistics of a street parade, but the inner workings of live television, which even led me into producing the Miss Philadelphia Scholarship Pageant Production Damn that pandemic from taking that being on TV away from us that year!
Before Guard Closet, I also worked in nonprofit and community event production, including at Philadelphia FIGHT on Blue Ball and AIDS Education Month, followed by fundraising and educational events for the Huntington’s Disease Society of America. I later worked in hospitality and corporate events with ING DIRECT, arts administration with Rebecca Davis Dance Company, and years of parade-office production with Todd at Under the Sun Productions. UTSP remains a huge force in my life and in how I think about events, teams, partnerships, and making organizations come together.
All of that experience taught me something simple: the public may remember the photo, the performance, the flag, the float, or the big reveal, but the real work starts long before that moment happens. It starts with planning, logistics, communication, relationships, and knowing how to turn an idea into something people can actually experience and remember.
How This Connects to Guard Closet
My background has always lived at the intersection of large-scale production, competition, movement, visuals, and mass audience appeal. I am a graduate of West Chester University and a former member of Field of View World Class Color Guard & Incomparable Golden Rams Marching Band. I have spent decades in the marching arts as a performer, educator, designer, sales representative, producer, and business owner earning countless medals, creating countless show designs, and having even more failures along the way. By the way, learning from your failures SUCKS I do not recommend this method
That is exactly why Guard Closet exists the way it does now. When we purchased the online consignment business, GuardCloset.com, I knew we had to go bigger, more mass appeal. We needed to create a simple but bigger effect and support color guard, winter guard, marching band, indoor drumline, dance, and performance programs with not just consignment, but custom uniforms, flags, floors, props, spirit wear, design services, choreography, drill writing, and educational resources. We had to teach the skills and help those that may not fully have the time or skills to design or educate their performers the way they want to.
Giving Back Is the Heart of It
Guard Closet, along with Unlimited Orange on the event production side, had to be more than a retailer and more than an event company. We had to make splashes with little money, in big ways, and give back in big ways. One of the main reasons so much work goes into the On A Water Break Podcast is so we can give back to the marching arts in a big, splashy, mass-appeal kind of way and create moments and simple effects that affect who’s listening
Getting involved in helping to produce Philadelphia Pride was a way to give back to a community that has given me so much: the Philadelphia LGBTQIA+ community. It is the community that taught me how to be free, open, proud, and even more colorful. Imagine that. Even more colorful But that gives you even more of a space for creativity, so run towards things like that!
The 1,000-Foot Progress Pride Flag
That same belief is behind one of the most meaningful projects I have ever worked on: the Giant Philadelphia Progress Pride Flag, which currently measures 1,000 feet.
More than three years ago, I started developing a concept to bring Pride around the city in a way that felt bold, joyful, public, and also quite impossible to miss. Starting with 400 feet, I wanted a way to create visibility across Philadelphia for the LGBTQIA+ community. and BOY did we cause a stir that first year.
The joy and expectation around the flag’s arrival has grown into a massive activation that now travels throughout the city of Philadelphia and surrounding suburbs, across the tri-state area, and hopefully far beyond. Simple effects that bring mass joy
Visibility Is Not an Accident
Whether I am producing Pride events or patriotic parades, building Guard Closet, supporting On A Water Break, or helping a marching arts program prepare for a season, I come back to the same idea: visibility is not an accident and mass appeal creates effect. But It is designed. It is planned. It is rehearsed. It is built by people who care enough to make the moment happen for others to enjoy and they do it together.
That is the connection between the Giant Philadelphia Progress Pride Flag and a color guard flag feature. Between a parade route and a winter guard floor. Between a civic celebration and a marching band production. They all depend on the same ingredients: strong visuals, clear planning, emotional impact, and people working behind the scenes to make it look effortless. Together.
And, of course, band parents. Always lots and lots of band parents.
Guard Closet has always been more than an online retailer to me. It is a way to support the people who create those big visible moments. Those moments that bring in a crowd to OOO and Ahhh. It is a place for directors trying to stretch a budget, performers stepping into a new season, new designers learning how to build a single moment, and programs looking for the piece that makes everything click for that OOo Ahh moment.
Why I Do What I Do
I do this work because I believe big moments matter.
I believe a parade can bring a city together. I believe a Pride flag can make someone feel seen. I believe a costume can help a performer step into confidence. I believe a simple effect can absolutely stay with an audience long after the last count.
From Under the Sun Productions to Guard Closet to Philly Pride, from the marching arts to major parades and festivals, my work has always been about helping people create something worth looking at, worth remembering, and worth being part of from beginning to end.
Sometimes that starts with a uniform.
Sometimes it starts with a parade.
And sometimes, it starts with a 1,000-foot flag.