River City Pride Festival

River City Pride Festival is a full-day celebration on Peoria's riverfront with live entertainment, drag performances, local vendors, food trucks and family activities. It is organized by Peoria Proud, which promotes LGBTQ+ advocacy, education and social outreach in the Greater Peoria area. A River City Pride Pageant is held in June ahead of the festival.

River City Pride is organized by Peoria Proud, a group whose mission is to advance equity and belonging for LGBTQ+ people in the Greater Peoria area through advocacy, education and social outreach. It aims to strengthen the region by building visibility, connection and opportunity, and it describes its vision as a community where diversity and individuality are respected and where barriers to inclusion are removed.

Peoria Proud is a membership organization. Members make a promise to support the mission with their time and talents in whatever ways they can, to treat others with dignity, and to help build a more inclusive region, summed up in the group's phrase that Equality Plays in Peoria when values are turned into action. The organization does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or any other protected status.

Its leadership draws on local professionals and advocates. Board members have included a small business owner in the hair salon industry who served as treasurer, the owner of a non-emergency medical transport company with a background in disability advocacy, and the director of Positive Health Solutions, formerly the Heart of Illinois HIV/AIDS Center, who also teaches at Illinois Central College.

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.

River City Pride Festival has included festival, drag, live music, vendors and family activities.

The organizer has not announced dates for 2027 yet. In 2026 it was held July 18, 2026. It usually falls mid-July, Saturday.