Staunton Pride Festival

Staunton Pride holds an annual Pride festival in the Shenandoah Valley city. The 2026 festival is on Saturday, October 17 from noon to 5 p.m. with LGBTQ+ vendors and community businesses, food and entertainment, plus a health and wellness hub offering a quiet room, mobile medical units and harm reduction supplies.

Staunton Pride is a volunteer-led organization that formed in 2018 and held its first festival on October 5 to 7 that year, when local coverage predicted more than 5,000 attendees. Christopher Wood founded the group and directed the 2018 and 2020 festivals, and the 2020 event moved online because of the pandemic. Proceeds from Staunton Pride go to the Shenandoah LGBTQ Center to support its outreach, education and advocacy across the Shenandoah Valley.

The organization also runs programming throughout the year. Its goals are to build a visible community and stronger connections, to create space for dialogue rooted in equity and social justice, and to keep queer joy and resilience at the center. It has hosted storytelling evenings and a storytelling workshop to help community members shape and share their own stories.

The festival's health and wellness hub includes the WARM Room, a quiet space hosted by The ARROW Project, the Central Shenandoah Health District's Mobile Wellness on Wheels, the Augusta Health Mobile Medical Unit, and free naloxone, harm reduction supplies and training through Virginia's REVIVE overdose response program.

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.

Staunton Pride Festival has included festival, vendors, health and wellness hub and food.

The next edition is October 17, 2026. It usually falls mid-October.