Pride in the Sky

Pride in the Sky opens the Hudson Valley Pride season on the Walkway Over the Hudson, lighting the bridge in rainbow colors. The day includes a queer families festival, drag story hour, a community festival, a flag procession and dancing into the evening.

Pride in the Sky is produced by Big Gay Hudson Valley, which partners with the Dutchess County Pride Center on an all-ages family festival with arts, crafts, music, food and drinks. Community festivals run on both sides of the Walkway Over the Hudson in the afternoon, where local groups share plans for their own June events.

Food and nonalcoholic drinks are sold on both sides and can be carried onto the Walkway, while beverage gardens run by Bad Seed Hard Cider and City Winery Hudson Valley keep alcohol within marked areas off the bridge. In the evening, hundreds of volunteers carry giant rainbow and trans Pride flags across the Walkway. The night continues with Broadway on the Walkway, featuring Broadway in Beacon and the Rosendale Theatre, a Runway on the Walkway drag show with Andramada and the House of Drama, a vintage disco DJ set in the middle of the bridge and a pop mashup set on the Highland side, where food trucks and pop-up bars stay open.

The event is free, with pre-registration encouraged, and is supported by a state parks historic preservation fund and a New York State Council on the Arts regrant administered by Arts Mid-Hudson. Big Gay Hudson Valley stays busy the rest of the year with events such as a fall farm festival, a holiday burlesque show and a queer ski weekend in the Catskills.

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.

Pride in the Sky has included festival, flag procession, family events and dance.

The organizer has not announced dates for 2027 yet. In 2026 it was held May 30, 2026. It usually falls last Saturday in May, opening the Hudson Valley Pride season.