Spencer Pride Festival

Spencer Pride Festival is a free, family-friendly rural Pride held in downtown Spencer in south central Indiana. It offers a large outdoor marketplace, live entertainment including drag, free health screenings, low-sensory zones and free shuttles. An 18 and over after party with a silent auction closes the day.

Spencer Pride works to improve quality of life for rural LGBTQ+ people in south central Indiana. Beyond the festival, it runs the Spencer Pride commUnity center with a retail shop, offers health and wellness services and other programming, advocates for the rural LGBTQ+ community and does outreach that sends thousands of dollars and hundreds of volunteer hours to local organizations and youth each year. The group is volunteer-powered, and it once partnered with the Simons Foundation on a community viewing of the total solar eclipse.

The festival is held on the first Saturday in October and is the largest event in downtown Spencer. It fills the streets with more than 150 booths from businesses and nonprofits, festival foods from elephant ears to specialty ice cream, and plazas where people can gather. Free health services include HIV screening and vaccinations. Official merchandise, including limited-edition T-shirts that often sell out, is sold at the commUnity center in the middle of the festival.

Organizers say the festival is meant as both a celebration and an educational opportunity for a rural community, and that everyone is welcome regardless of age, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, income or ability.

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.

Spencer Pride Festival has included festival, marketplace, drag, health screenings and after party.

The next edition is October 3, 2026. It usually falls first Saturday of October.