Overview Atlanta Pride is a free two-day festival in Piedmont Park with a Sunday parade down Peachtree Street, and the weekend closes on the Starlight Cabaret, which the organizers bill as the largest outdoor drag show in the United States. It runs in October, timed to National Coming Out Day on October 11. The Atlanta Pride Committee, which calls itself Georgia's oldest nonprofit serving the LGBTQ+ community, dates the event to a small gathering in Piedmont Park in 1970 and marked its 55th anniversary in 2025. On site The park runs two stages: a main stage for headliners and the Starlight Cabaret, and a Community Stage for local drag, dance parties and variety shows. In 2025 the gates were open 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. both days. On the Saturday the Trans March, the Bi+ Pan March and the Dyke March each step off from the park's Charles Allen Gate. The Sunday parade starts near the Civic Center MARTA station, runs north on Peachtree, turns onto 10th Street and ends at that same gate. Inside the park sit a marketplace of booths, a Family Fun Zone with Drag Story Hour, a Wellness Zone and a VIP area, and in 2025 panels of the AIDS Memorial Quilt hung on Oak Hill. Audience The organizers count more than 100,000 spectators along the parade route on Peachtree and 10th Street, and the route empties into the festival gate. The marches are walked rather than watched: the organizers say the Trans, Bi+ Pan and Dyke Marches drew record turnouts in 2025. The Family Fun Zone in 2025 was the largest the festival had run. Talent and Influencers Flo Milli headlined the main stage in 2025, on a Saturday bill with Perfume Genius and Bob the Drag Queen. For 2026 the festival booked JT of City Girls as its main-stage headliner, with Cain Culto and Zee Machine. The Starlight Cabaret puts more than 20 Atlanta drag performers on the main stage, hosted in 2025 by Phoenix, a Drag Race alum. Grand marshals change every year; the 2025 group included Lena Lust and Raquel Willis, and the eight named for 2026 included the drag performers Shawnna Brooks and Pressure K and the Atlanta media personality Jenny Arellano. Track record The Atlanta History Center puts the first march at about 100 demonstrators on Midtown sidewalks; by 1994 attendance was around 150,000. In 2025 broadcast coverage counted more than 32.2 million impressions and print and digital coverage more than 82 million, and officials estimated the weekend's economic impact at more than $86 million. The committee's Pride Across the Peach State program had given $90,000 to 16 Pride organizations across Georgia by the end of 2025. Brand presence Sponsors are sold at six levels, and every level includes a marketplace booth and a parade entry: booth locations are zoned by level, and the top level carries a float and up to 400 marchers in the parade's front row. Separate presenting rights attach a single name to the marketplace, the parade, the main stage, the Community Stage, the VIP area, the sponsor and VIP reception, the Family Fun Zone or the Wellness Zone. In 2025 the main stage ran as the Coca-Cola stage.