The Dallas Pride Festival of Rainbows held one of their events at Main Street Garden Park in downtown Dallas on Saturday, June 6, 2026.
Stewart F. House/The Dallas Morning News
Taylor Day (left), 24, of Plano and Nessa Solorzano, (right), 26, of Rockwall take a selfie with their group in their booth, “stand for the Silent”, as the Dallas Pride Festival of Rainbows held one of their events at Main Street Garden Park in downtown Dallas on Saturday, June 6, 2026.
Stewart F. House/The Dallas Morning News
Jennifer Lott, 49, of Duncanville, dances a jig while setting up her booth, “Lin and Jen Hats On” , as the Dallas Pride Festival of Rainbows held one of their events at Main Street Garden Park in downtown Dallas on Saturday, June 6, 2026.
Stewart F. House/The Dallas Morning News
After six years at Fair Park, Dallas Pride headed downtown Saturday, transforming the city’s parks into vibrant spaces filled with music, vendors and performances under this year’s theme: “Rainbows don’t wash away.”
Thousands were expected to attend the Dallas Pride Festival throughout the day, a sprawling celebration of LGBTQ identity, visibility and community, culminating in Saturday evening’s historic sunset parade at 7 p.m.
The celebration was spread across downtown’s Main Street Garden Park, Pacific Plaza, Harwood Park and Pegasus Plaza.
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Organizers described this year’s theme as “a direct response to a rising tide of challenges facing the LGBTQ community both in Texas and across the United States” in a news release. They went on to point to the removal of rainbow-painted crosswalks as evidence of these challenges.
Shortly after the festival’s opening at 11 a.m., a line of attendees wrapped around the block outside Main Street Garden Park.
‘Free Mom Hugs’
Among those waiting to enter were Mia Mitchell, 50, and Josie Rini, 46, who traveled from Plano to the event. The duo sported colorful shirts that read “Free Mom Hugs.”
Mitchell said about 12 moms from the organization’s Dallas chapter were scattered around the festival, looking to brighten other attendees’ days.
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“We’re here to show a little love to anyone that needs a hug from a mom,” Mitchell said. “This is the year to show up. If ever there was a time to be an ally, it’s now.”
The festival saw a heavy police presence, with officers securing the entrances and stationed throughout the parks. Attendees had to pass through bag checks and show IDs alongside their tickets to enter. General admission cost $15.
Main Street Garden Park, the festival’s central area, was home to tents from a host of vendors selling jewelry, shirts and food. Corporate sponsors included Michaels, CVS and community organizations.
Inside the park, Dana Castelvecchi, who is part of the LGBTQ civil rights organization Human Rights Campaign, said the group was there to raise awareness as they work to elect “like-minded candidates up and down the ballot.”
“We’re trying to build people’s power to stand up against the current administration,” Castelvecchi said. “Happy Pride,” she added.
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Family friendly
A block away, Harwood Park held the festival’s teen and family zone, featuring family-friendly performances and SPCA pet adoptions alongside tents from the Dallas Public Library, the Dallas Zoo and corporate sponsors including Comerica Bank and Fifth Third Bank. Children were invited to make crafts or slide down an inflatable slide.
Allison Bell and her family came to the family zone from Plano.
While her daughter explored the zone’s activities, Bell said the family was there to support her.
“It’s nice to have a place to go that’s happy, that is accepting, and you don’t have to pretend to be anything you’re not,” Bell said.
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At the Dallas Public Library table, representative Stephanie Lott said the library was there because of a sense of pride in the community. “We are proud of people, we are proud of books, we are proud to provide books to people, we are proud to be your library,” Lott said.
Alongside information about summer reading programs, the library distributed origami kits and free books.
Another library representative, Kaycee Choi, added that the library has been in attendance at Pride events for many years to show support for the local community.
“It’s really good to be able to represent here, because our staff is LGBTQI+ too,” Choi said.
‘Beloved child of God’
Across from the festivities on Harwood Street, a group of four men from the Gospel of Jesus Christ-Dallas stood with flags and posters reading “Jesus saves” and “Repent and believe the Gospel” in protest.
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Inside the park, Cathedral of Hope, a congregation of the United Church of Christ, spread a different message.
Christopher Schouten said the church’s mission is to “make sure that everybody here knows that they’re a beloved child of God.” He added that the congregation has been involved with Pride since “its inception.”
“We’ve been told so many times by churches and families that we grew up in that we are not [children of God], and our message is ‘Sorry, that’s wrong,’” he said. “We have something for everybody, and we want everyone to be surprised about how different we are.”
Standing at the end of the line on Commerce Street around noon, Steve Smith and Justin Bastible of downtown Dallas shared they came to the festival for the sense of community. This year’s celebration marked their second and third time attending Dallas Pride, respectively.
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“There aren’t that many opportunities to bring the queer community together, so it’s a great event,” Smith said.
At 7 p.m., the Dallas Pride Parade will return to downtown Dallas on its route from 1972, taking place at sunset for the first time in the city’s history. The parade will feature over 120 entries, including floats and bands, according to a Dallas Pride news release.