OKC Pride Alliance announces Pridefest June 24-26 at Scissortail Park

OKLAHOMA CITY (Free Press) — The Oklahoma City Pride Alliance has announced the weekend of June 24-26 as the date for the second annual Pridefest. Scissortail Park in downtown Oklahoma City will be site of the three-day festival.

The Pride Alliance Parade will take place on Saturday, June 25 at 10 a.m. in downtown Oklahoma City. The festival schedule and parade route will be released later on the Alliance’s website, okcpridealliance.org.

“We were blown away by the city’s support and the outpouring of love the community showed the 2SLGBTQ+ community during last year’s festival,” said Hannah Royce, OKC Pride Alliance President, in a news release.

Last year rainy weather posed several challenges for Pride Alliance leaders but the festival continued on with sizeable crowds even though the threat of lightning caused the parade to be postponed until the end of July.

People at the festival didn’t seem to mind a little rain in exchange for continuing the annual celebration of 2SLGBTQ+ life and community.

OKC Pride Festival
People in front of the main stage spontaneously danced and celebrated at the OKC Pride Festival 2021. (BRETT DICKERSON/Okla City Free Press)

And as promised, the postposed parade happened at the end of July.

History

The festival and parade in 2021 was the first big independent project after the nonprofit Oklahoma City Pride Alliance, Inc. endured a legal fight between aging bar owners on the historic 39th Street strip and younger organizers who had formed the nonprofit and wanted to move the festival and parade downtown. The conflict was over who could use the original “OKC Pride” name and the original website.

In the end, the bar owners won exclusive use of “OKC Pride” name but the organizers and the Oklahoma City Pride Alliance, Inc. quickly recovered and moved forward with the first Pridefest downtown at Scissortail Park.


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Founder, publisher, and editor of Oklahoma City Free Press. Brett continues to contribute reports and photography to this site as he runs the business.