Grand Rapids’ 38th annual Pride Festival is happening at Calder Plaza on June 20 from noon to 10 p.m. and June 21 from noon to 8 p.m. Everyone is invited to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community and support nearly 300 local organizations, vendors, and businesses at the two-day celebration organized by the Grand Rapids Pride Center.
The theme for this year’s celebration is “Together We Glow.” Aaminah Shakur, Accessibility and Healthcare Coordinator for the Grand Rapids Pride Center, explained where the theme came from.
“Together We Glow is about the need for community to come together and support each other, while acknowledging interconnected struggles with all other oppressed people, and the overlapping identities and unique struggles of members of our community,” Shakur stated in an email. “When we come together with care and respect, we magnify each other and illuminate the world with our collective brilliance.”
The Pride Center is anticipating a total of 50,000 to 75,000 attendees this year.
“Pride Fest is a two-day event, since 2025, which requires about 300 volunteer slots (not including GRPC staff, board members, our family members, and our youth group who work the event),” Shakur stated. “We are located at the Calder Plaza on Ottawa Ave and take up the streets from Michigan to Pearl on Ottawa, and a portion of Ionia Ave for the food court, as well as a bit of the side streets in between.”
For Shakur, who attended Grand Rapids’s first Pride Festival in 1988, the evolution has been significant.
“The first GR Pride Fest featured maybe 20 community organization booths from around the state, where in 2026 we have about 200 booths per day, and some of those differ from Saturday to Sunday, so there are almost 300 organizations, businesses, local independent artists, and food trucks represented across the weekend,” Shakur shared.
Shakur said the first Grand Rapids Pride Fest took place in 1988 after a group of community members traveled to Washington, D.C. for the 1987 March on Washington. Upon their return, they wanted to organize support in Grand Rapids. The first festival was a way to let LGBTQ+ community members know that they were not alone, and that there were resources that existed throughout Michigan.
Grand Rapids Community College will be one of the 200 booths, and the college is giving away free Pride-themed T-shirts while supplies last.
While the Pride Festival is a celebration, it is also the largest fundraiser the Grand Rapids Pride Center hosts. Admission to the event is free, but donations are appreciated. The Grand Rapids Pride Center was established as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in 1988, making it the longest-running LGBTQ+ resource center in Michigan. Donations go directly to the programs they provide, which include several social and supportive groups for LGBTQ+ and ally communities.
Shakur wishes more people knew about the full scope of the Pride Center’s work beyond the festival. The center provides more than 15 ongoing social support groups, events for transgender community members, elders, youth, health education, vaccine clinics, on-site STI testing, a therapy assistance program, a small food, hygiene, and clothing pantry, and a safe space to drop in Monday through Friday. The center also provides education to members of the community, businesses, and other organizations.
For those who haven’t experienced a Pride Festival, or want a refresher, Shakur shared the Grand Rapids Pride Center updates its website yearly with information on how to prepare and what to expect at Pride Fest.
“The most common question I am asked is actually about safety, which is just as important in 2026 as it was in 1988,” Shakur stated. “Grand Rapids Pride Fest is an extremely safe, low drama event, especially for an event of our size.”
Shakur explained that this is partly because the Pride Center strives to reserve space for protesters to engage in their right to free speech without infringing on the festival. The Pride Center works with FOLA (Field Operations and Logistics Agency), a queer-owned and queer-staffed security company.
For Shakur, Pride is about celebration, along with visibility and solidarity across the 2-SLGBTQ+ community, with “2-S” referring to Two-Spirit identities.
“I personally hope that they feel welcome and seen, but also in awe of the diversity of our community,” Shakur stated. “I hope that attendees take the time to learn about the 2-SLGBTQ+ identities and experiences they may not be familiar with, connect with broader community, and find solidarity around our politicized identities that encourages them to show care across community and to feel empowered.”
