Greensboro Pride will mark its 20th anniversary this month by bringing a Pride parade back to downtown Greensboro for the first time in nearly three decades.
The Greensboro Pride Parade and Festival will be held Saturday, Sept. 12, with the parade beginning at 10 a.m. along Elm Street and the festival running from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. around LeBauer Park and City Center Park.
It will be the first parade organized by Greensboro Pride and the first Pride parade held in Greensboro since 1996.
That year, Greensboro hosted NC Pride, a statewide event that rotated among North Carolina cities. Greensboro Pride itself began in 2006.
That distinction explains why some promotional material calls this year’s event Greensboro’s “first-ever” Pride Parade, while other material describes it as the first in nearly 30 years. It’s the first parade organized as part of Greensboro Pride, but not the first Pride parade ever held in the city.
The parade is scheduled to begin near East McGee Street and South Elm Street and travel through downtown before ending near City Center Park. Organizers say a final route map and staging information will be released closer to the event.
The parade is expected to include community groups, nonprofits, businesses, marching bands, performers, floats and vehicles. Organizers say tens of thousands of spectators and participants are expected.
The parade will be followed by the annual Greensboro Pride Festival in and around LeBauer Park and City Center Park.
The festival footprint will extend along North Church Street, North Davie Street, East Lindsay Street and East Friendly Avenue. Organizers say that the event will include live entertainment, more than 300 exhibitors, food and beverage vendors and nonprofit organizations.
Downtown Greensboro Inc. describes the event as one of the city’s largest single-day events and says tens of thousands of people are expected.
The City of Greensboro is also promoting the festival on its official calendar, where it describes Greensboro Pride as one of the largest LGBTQIA2+ events in the region.
There’s a discrepancy in the listed ending time: The city calendar lists the festival as running from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., while Greensboro Pride organizers and Downtown Greensboro list a 7 p.m. ending time.
The Sept. 12 parade and festival are the main events in a week of Pride activities.
Pride Week began with the Greensboro Pride Pageant on Saturday, Sept. 5. Other events include an LGBTQ+ art show and Pride-themed trivia on Thursday, Sept. 10, a kickoff dance party at Chemistry Nightclub on Friday, Sept. 11 and an official Pride afterparty Saturday night.
There will also be religious events connected with Pride weekend.
Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in downtown Greensboro will hold a Holy Eucharist celebrating Pride on Friday, Sept. 11 at 7 p.m. on the church’s outdoor labyrinth facing North Greene Street.
The Rev. Marion Sprott, Canon for Transition with the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina, is scheduled to deliver a short message, and the service will conclude with a prayer walk on the labyrinth.
College Place United Methodist Church will hold a Pride Weekend worship service Sunday, Sept. 13 at 11 a.m., followed by lunch.
Greensboro Pride began 20 years ago as a local festival. This year’s addition of a downtown parade makes the 2026 event its largest expansion yet.
The parade and festival are free and open to the public.
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So you served in the military, laid your life on the line for America, and were honourably discharged.
You have reason to be proud.
Maybe you’re a policeman, risking confrontation with the worst elements in our society, on a daily basis.
You deserve to feel proud.
Or you might be a social worker who has really helped a young fatherless black boy to find his feet, and prevented him from joining a gang.
You deserve to be proud of your efforts.
But if all you did was [deleted], buddy, that’s nothing to be proud of.
What if you’re a gay policeman?
Some things ought never to be celebrated in public.
It’s if you stood up to bigotry and hate you have a reason to be proud.
Hope that helps
Cheers
put the smaky on this krapy, austin !
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I respect Scott’s decision to delete the rather crude expression that I used, but just to be clear, it involved the creation of a low pressure region in the back of one man’s throat, in order to provide physical pleasure to another man.
Hey, I don’t care what consenting adults do, and none of it should be illegal, but it’s nothing to be proud of.
“Pride”… ? In what ?
The addition of the Pride Parade is a good sign the Festival is being capably retooled after a number of corporate sponsors bailed out in 2024 and 2025 in fear of the Trump DEI initiatives. Mind you we are talking private money, not city or county funding here. The Pyrle and other Downtown businesses support the Festival, which draws a large number locally and from beyond the area. The numbers would make Scott Bessent pridefully proud. One thing you can count on with the LGBTQ2+ community is that they will get very creative.
Great news. Will Josh Stein, Roy Cooper and Skippy Alston lead the parade?
I truly don’t understand why the rainbow brigade has to shove their way of life down our throat by doing this. Children should not be subjected to the stuff that goes on during these so-called parades. Some of these get way out of hand. The way they dress, the way they act, it’s ridiculous. Greensboro has reached a whole new low. I will make sure I’m out of town that weekend. I don’t want to see it. I don’t want to hear it. I don’t want no part of it. It’s disgusting and it goes against everything that God commands. I want to know why they are not doing Straight pride parades. Why does the rainbow brigade get special treatment. They claim they want equal treatment but yet they get special treatment. I don’t see parades being put on for normal families. I don’t see parades being put on for straight people. This is ridiculous in Greensboro should not be allowing it.
Uh, you dont have to go to the parade. No one is shoving anything down your throat.
The event is free. It doesn’t cost anything. I wish I knew how to plan a free event.
Do it for nothing.
Well said. Greensboro is filling God’s cup of wrath.
Is the whole month of JUNE not enough????? Yes! Yes it most certainly is. And WHO ever decided that they should get an entire MONTH of “recognition”? It’s pathetically indicative of the way this country fell so far during the Biden Harris Obama administration and will fall further and faster if democrats get the chance to be in full power again. PAY ATTENTION GREENSBORO REPUBLICANS (and independents). Get out and vote to stop them in November and beyond. Our way of life depends on it.