5 days ago
At the 2025 Nashville Pride Festival, show up where others have stepped back
In Middle Tennessee, Pride has always been more than a celebration — it's a homecoming. It's a season when our city bursts with joy, resilience and love. When music fills the air, color transforms the streets, and community stands shoulder to shoulder in its boldest form.
And this year, the spirit matters more than ever.
2025 has brought its challenges. Like many organizations, we are facing financial setbacks due to the loss of several longtime supporters. These challenges have left us with a significant budget gap at a time when our visibility, safety and celebration matter more than ever.
Still, we remain committed to delivering the kind of Pride our community deserves: joyful, powerful and rooted in purpose.
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Pride has never been about convenience. It's about conviction. And in a year where LGBTQ+ rights are being debated, targeted and legislated against, our joy is an act of resistance. Our visibility is a protest.
And our gathering — louder, brighter and braver than ever — is a promise to our community:
We are still here.
Formally since 1988, Nashville Pride has existed at the intersection of celebration and protest. What began as a small picnic has grown into one of the largest Pride events in the South — held in the shadow of the State Capitol and the glow of Broadway.
It's a space where love is loud, joy is justice, and every person belongs.
This year, the 2025 Nashville Pride Festival & Parade will welcome over 240 vendors and a record number of participants in the parade. There will be local businesses, community organizations and nonprofits, as well as new and returning sponsors who have said 'yes' when it mattered most.
Their support reminds us that Pride doesn't shrink in the face of pressure. It expands. It adapts. It rises.
If you've ever felt the magic of Pride — a shared glance, a burst of laughter, a moment of finally feeling seen — this is the year to lean in. To march with purpose. To stand a little taller. To celebrate even louder.
Buy a ticket. Make a donation. Sign up to volunteer. Become a sponsor.
Show up where others have stepped back.
In a year marked by retreat, your support isn't just meaningful — it's vital.
This is not the time to stand on the sidelines. This is the time to show up for our city, our future and each other. Pride isn't about perfection. It's about persistence. It's about choosing hope over fear, and presence over silence.
More: Why Tennessee ranks as high risk for gay and transgender people
It's about showing up — not just when it's easy, but especially when it's not.
Pride belongs to all of us. And this year, it needs every one of us.
Join us as the 2025 Nashville Pride celebration kicks off with the first-ever Friday Night Concert on June 27 at Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park.
The Pride Parade steps off at 10 a.m. on Saturday, June 28, beginning at Broadway and 8th Ave.
And the Pride Festival continues June 28-29 at Bicentennial Park.
Let's keep marching, keep dancing, and keep building a future where everyone is free to live, love, and thrive — right here in Tennessee.
The Nashville Pride Board of Directors leads the organization's year-round efforts to serve and celebrate the LGBTQ+ community across Middle Tennessee.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville needs your help to celebrate Pride Month | Opinion
