Salem Pride in the Park

Salem Pride in the Park is Salem Capital Pride's annual festival at Riverfront Park. It features more than 200 booths from queer vendors and resource groups, a main stage with ASL interpretation, food trucks, and a family and pets area. The 2026 edition marked the organization's 49th year.

Salem Capital Pride keeps Pride in the Park free by relying on donations, which it says also keep its programs independent of other funding sources. The festival depends on community volunteers, and anyone can help shape it by attending the group's monthly board meetings, held online and in person on the first Wednesday of each month.

Beyond the booths and main stage, the park has a Queer Mixer Tent that runs speed-dating and friend-making sessions for adults every 70 minutes, plus one youth session. Salem Capital Pride has also brought the traveling photo exhibit Authentic Selves: Celebrating Trans and Nonbinary People and their Families, and it holds a Best Dressed Pet Contest on stage. The code of conduct bans unpermitted megaphones, poles longer than five feet and touching others without consent, and guests are asked to report problems to security or to volunteers in white name tags.

In June the group also holds a Pride Parade and Block Party downtown. The parade gathers at the Capitol Building and travels about seven blocks to a block party on State Street between Liberty and Front streets, and it is open to vehicles, motorcycles, bikes, skaters and walkers. The block party is wheelchair accessible, with an accessible restroom and ASL interpreters, and its food vendors include a stand serving non-alcoholic drinks.

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.

Salem Pride in the Park has included festival, vendor market, art exhibit and pet contest.

The organizer has not announced dates for 2027 yet. In 2026 it was held September 19, 2026. It usually falls a Saturday in mid-September.