The horrific and hateful shooting in Orlando threatened to cast a dark, tragic cloud over Milwaukee PrideFest weekend. Instead, the community and the city came together in a defiant celebration of pride, resilience and life. 

PrideFest reported last week that, with the help of a record-breaking Sunday attendance on its final day, the festival tallied a new overall attendance record of 33,438, serving as a two percent increase from the previous year. Then, last Monday, City Hall joined in solitary with the LGBT community, hanging a rainbow flag in tribute to the victims who lost their lives in Orlando. And though the flag was expected to stay up only through last Thursday, the sign of pride still hangs as of this writing. 

The LGBT magazine The Advocate took notice of PrideFest's strong success in the face of hate and assembled a photo gallery of images taken the day before the terrible attack.

"We thought it important to show both these photos of 'the good old days' before the tragedy and also Milwaukee’s heartfelt response of love and support for Orlando," wrote The Advocate. 

Click here to check out the day before gallery, and click here to see The Advocate's collection of photos of the tributes from the days after. It's a moving tribute to pride, life and how Milwaukee responded to some of the worst the world has to offer with some its best.