Pride in Progress

Pride in Progress is a spring Pride celebration in Provo linked to the Cougar Pride Center. A march from the historic Provo courthouse leads to a festival at Memorial Park with booths, live music, drag, speeches, food trucks, and resources.

Pride in Progress comes from the Cougar Pride Center, which grew out of Ally Night, a weekly gathering of friends that its founders started in spring 2021 to talk about LGBTQ+ issues. That June the group organized a Pride march, the first of its kind for the BYU community, and thousands turned out. The group was formally organized as BYU Pride that fall and reorganized as the Cougar Pride Center in December 2021.

Since then the center has matched hundreds of people with safe housing, given away hundreds of pounds of clothing through its Open Closet program, held the first on-campus career fair for LGBTQ+ and other minority students, and hosted the first BYU-approved Pride event on campus. In 2023 it expanded its annual Pride event into a full march and festival, using the Utah County Historic Courthouse as a backdrop for the first time, and in 2024 it celebrated becoming a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

The 2026 march opened with speeches from Provo Mayor Marsha Judkins, City Council member Rachel Whipple and an Equality Utah BYU ambassador. About 1,000 people attended the festival at Memorial Park, which had roughly 50 booths and six food trucks. Each year the center also presents its Progress Award, first given to Charity Heels in 2024 and now carrying her 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.

Pride in Progress has included march, festival, live music, drag, speeches and food trucks.

The next edition is April 10, 2027. It usually falls april.