Stonewall Columbus Pride

Stonewall Columbus Pride is a free Pride festival, resource fair and march run by Stonewall Columbus. The festival fills Goodale Park over two days, and the march steps off Saturday morning at Broad and High streets and heads north on High Street. Related June events include a Pride brunch, an interfaith service and a drag race fun run. Pride is Stonewall Columbus's largest yearly fundraiser.

Stonewall Columbus was founded in 1981 as Stonewall Union and has served Central Ohio's LGBTQ+ community for more than 40 years. Local accounts place the first Pride march in Columbus in June 1981, when a few hundred people marched, some hiding their identities for safety; June 26, 1982, is often cited as the first official march.

Pride has since grown into one of the largest gatherings in the region. After in-person events moved online during the pandemic, Pride returned with more than 22,000 registered marchers and roughly 720,000 estimated attendees. Producing the festival and march costs more than $500,000 a year, covered in part by a group of supporters called Pride Champions and a Pride 365 business partnership model. Along the way, a capital campaign and renovation led to the reopening of the Stonewall Columbus Community Center.

June programming includes a City Hall Pride illumination and the Shellabarger Illuminator Award ceremony. March participants must support Stonewall Columbus's vision of an inclusive community, and groups that violate that policy are disqualified. A digital Pride guide carries entertainment lineups and vendor details, and the organization collects photos, flyers and stories from earlier decades for a public history timeline.

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.

Stonewall Columbus Pride has included march, festival, resource fair, pride brunch, interfaith service and 5k.

Stonewall Columbus Pride was first held in 1982. Organizers reported over 700,000 visitors (organizer figure) people in null.

The organizer has not announced dates for 2027 yet. In 2026 it was held June 19-20, 2026. It usually falls third weekend of June.