Overview The Phoenix Pride Festival is the fall LGBTQ+ festival Phoenix Pride throws at the end of its parade, and in 2025 it put Big Freedia, Todrick Hall and Snow Tha Product on the main stage across more than 60 acres of Steele Indian School Park. It traces back to 1981, when activists marched through downtown Phoenix to the state Capitol. Phoenix Pride rebuilt the festival's layout for 2025 and reworked the weekend again for the 45th anniversary of that march in 2026, both times citing community feedback. The nonprofit also runs the free Rainbows Festival each spring, and its Community Foundation has put more than $1.5 million into grants and scholarships since 2008. On site The 2025 festival ran Saturday afternoon into the night and all day Sunday. Around the Circle K Main Stage sat more stages of live entertainment, a dance pavilion, a health and wellness pavilion, a kids' space, food and drink, and a 21-and-over VIP experience. The dance pavilion added a Sunday afternoon Tea Dance that year with DJ Jamie J Sanchez. Cooling tents, a seniors' relaxation area and an accessibility team worked the grounds. The parade stepped off Sunday morning at Thomas Road and Third Street and marched north to Indian School Road. Audience The crowd runs across generations. In 2025 children 12 and under and active military got in free, teens, seniors 55 and over and veterans paid less, and the grounds had both a kids' space and a seniors' area. Phoenix Pride counts more than 3,500 marchers in over 200 parade entries, from community walking groups to full floats, and an estimated 16,000 people lining the route. Talent and Influencers Snow Tha Product and Big Freedia closed the Saturday of the 2025 festival, and Debby Holiday and Todrick Hall closed Sunday, with paid meet-and-greets for the two headliners. The Grand Canyon Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego were the 2025 parade grand marshals. Each year's theme comes from Phoenix Pride's Call to Artists; the 2025 theme, Our Pride is Our Resistance. Our Difference is Our Power., grew out of Jackson Kloog's winning piece, Black Sheep. Track record Volunteers formed the Phoenix Lesbian and Gay Pride Committee about a decade after the first march, and it became the 501(c)(3) Phoenix Pride. The organization has produced the parade for more than 25 years, and the Rainbows Festival reached its 24th edition in 2026. Money raised over festival weekend helps pay for Phoenix Pride's year-round work, including the Community Foundation's scholarships and community grants for LGBTQ+ Arizonans. Brand presence The top partner's name goes on the festival itself, the next level names the Main Stage and the one below names a second stage; Circle K held the Main Stage in 2025. Other partners align with a featured space such as the wellness, accessibility or family areas. Partner packages bundle exhibitor space on the festival's sponsor row, commercials and logos on the big screens, ads in the printed pocket guide, parade entries and, at the higher levels, LGBTQ+ inclusion training sessions for the partner's own employees. Phoenix Pride sells across seven events a year, from the parade and Rainbows Festival to a 5K, pageants and a citywide bartender competition, and discounts multi-event packages.