Decorah Pride Festival

Decorah Pride works to increase LGBTQIA+ visibility in northeast Iowa. Its fall festival week includes trivia, a queer opera and homecoming dance, and Pride yoga, leading up to a parade and Party on the Pavement on the main festival day, Saturday, October 10.

Decorah Pride creates spaces for LGBTQIA+ people in northeast Iowa to connect and work together on visibility, diversity and creativity. Its festival week builds toward the main day with events around downtown, including outdoor trivia on LGBTQIA+ history and culture held outside 101 West Water Street, where teams can form on the spot.

The queerPOPERA evening at the Steyer Opera House in Hotel Winneshiek features Luther faculty, alumni, students and guest performers in an interdisciplinary Queer Homecoming show, followed by a dance with live music from Driftless Jazz. Pride yoga at DRiFT Strength and Yoga Center is a gentle class offered on a sliding-scale donation.

The parade steps off at 1 p.m. down Water Street. Individuals gather beforehand in the Decorah Bank employee lot on Riverside Avenue and can walk, roll or ride, and watchers are invited to join the final entry. The afternoon continues on Winnebago Street with vendors, community partners, food trucks, bouncy houses and games, then a ticketed drag show benefiting ArtHaus and an 18+ dance party with a DJ.

Pride events celebrate LGBTQ+ people and mark the Stonewall uprising of June 1969. Most combine a parade or march with a festival of performers, community groups, vendors and food.

Decorah Pride Festival has included parade, street party and arts events.

The next edition is October 6-10, 2026. It usually falls early to mid October.