Knox Pride Fest

Knox Pride, the East Tennessee Equality Council, runs a community and resource center in Knoxville and produces Knox Pride Fest, a fall festival with a night parade downtown and a festival at World's Fair Park. The organization also operates a food pantry and a thrift store.

Knox Pride was founded in 2006 as the East Tennessee Equality Council and has grown well beyond a yearly celebration. Its Knox Pride Center opened in October 2021 as a home base for the Knoxville LGBTQIA+ community, offering resources, referrals, meeting space for other groups, gender-affirming care and life skills support, a food pantry and a thrift store called the Thriftique. The pantry restocks daily and asks for no paperwork, ID or service in return.

Donations support the center's support groups, mental health care services, life skills classes, food and clothing. Knox Pride has also partnered with SoKno Pride to offer micro-grants to LGBTQIA+ applicants in the Knoxville area.

Knox Pride Fest brings music, entertainment and speakers, with vendors sharing information, selling goods and connecting with the community across the weekend. Parade groups must register in advance under Knoxville police guidelines and may include walkers, bicycles, cars, motorcycles, carriages and floats. Each group checks in on parade day and carries a visible sign with its name.

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.

Knox Pride Fest has included night parade, festival and vendors.

The organizer has not announced dates for 2027 yet. It usually falls early October.