This Week: Pride in Atlanta, a Parade in Philly and an Empanada Showdown in Ybor

Welcome to the first This Week, a short Friday note with five things worth knowing. Some are events. Some are places. One is just a good fact. Everything below is happening between now and Sunday, October 11, which this year is National Coming Out Day and, as it happens, one of the busiest Sundays of the fall.

1. Something happening: Atlanta Pride, October 10 and 11

Atlanta holds its Pride in October rather than June. The festival fills Piedmont Park in Midtown all weekend, and it is free and open to the public. The parade steps off at noon from the Civic Center MARTA station, runs up Peachtree Street, turns east on 10th Street and ends at the Charles Allen Gate of the park. Most listings put the parade on Sunday.

Photo: Markus Winkler, via Pexels.

If you are going, our guide to LGBTQ-owned businesses in Atlanta and the Atlanta hub are good places to find somewhere to eat before or after.

2. Also this week, around the country

• Houston, October 2 and 3. The 47th Festival Chicano at Miller Outdoor Theatre in Hermann Park, free. Little Joe y La Familia plays Friday at 7 p.m.
• Nashville, October 3. Celebrate Nashville turns 30 this year: more than 50 cultural communities in Centennial Park from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., with an anniversary parade at 9 a.m. Admission is free.
• Phoenix, October 3. The 6th annual Phoenix Latino Pride Festival at Heritage Square, from 4 p.m. to midnight. Hispanic Heritage Month and Pride in one evening.
• Philadelphia, October 11. OURfest, the festival formerly known as OutFest, takes over the Gayborhood for National Coming Out Day, noon to 7 p.m., on 12th and 13th streets from Locust to Spruce.
• Chicago, all month. The National Museum of Mexican Art in Pilsen opened Where Memory Lives: 40 Years of Día de Muertos, its 40th annual Day of the Dead exhibition. It runs through November 29, and the museum is always free.

3. Somewhere we would go: Ybor City on Sunday

On Sunday, October 11, the Taste of Latino Festival and Empanada Smackdown takes over Centennial Park in Ybor City from noon to 6 p.m. General admission is free, with paid VIP tickets if you want them.

An empanada smackdown is exactly as serious as it sounds. Photo via Pexels.

If you are making a day of it, La Segunda Bakery has been baking Cuban bread since 1915 and started as a small Ybor City bakery. Bring a loaf home. For more around town, see our guide to Latino-owned businesses in Tampa and the Tampa hub.

4. Something we learned: why October 11

National Coming Out Day is on October 11 for a reason. It marks the anniversary of the 1987 March on Washington for lesbian and gay rights, the same weekend the AIDS Memorial Quilt was first laid out on the National Mall, according to the Human Rights Campaign. This year it lands on a Sunday, and Atlanta, Philadelphia and Tampa all have something big going on that day.

5. New in our directory

A few of the newest businesses in our directory:

• Q Fitness and Wellness, an LGBTQ+ gym in Charlotte built around fitness, strength and community.
• Root Down Remodeling, a women-led remodeling contractor in Madison, Wisconsin, doing kitchens, baths, basements and additions.
• Loly Spa Miami in Coral Gables, a family-run spa.

If you own a business and want to be in next week's list, you can list your business free.

On our radar

Orlando's Come Out With Pride is Saturday, October 17, at Lake Eola Park, with the parade at 4 p.m. We will have more on that next Friday. In the meantime, this week we wrote about the word "authentic", menus as a user interface and what "Hispanic" can and can't tell you.