Ybor City welcomes the inaugural Pride of Tampa Festival

Ybor City welcomes Pride of Tampa Festival

On Saturday, Pride of Tampa took over Ybor City for their festival, after Tampa Pride announced a one-year hiatus for 2026. FOX 13's Danielle Zulkosky reports.

TAMPA, Fla - A new pride event called Pride of Tampa was held on Saturday in Ybor City at the Cuban Club.

This event stood in for Tampa Pride after that event and the parade was canceled in 2025 due to financial and cultural climate issues, according to a post on the Tampa Pride website. 

What we know:

The Pride of Tampa Event included a family-friendly festival at the Cuban Club, an adults-only drag show upstairs and a march through Ybor City. 

"It's my first Pride being out," said Mahogany Palmer, a Tampa visitor at the event. "[It is] Liberating. But also frightening in this time."

The Pride of Tampa event organizers said they wanted to create a place of acceptance and community.

Elvis Quintero, a member of the Tampa Pride Marketing team, said making sure there was still a place for LGBTQ+ celebration was an important part of putting on this event.

"Being out is super important. We got to continue showing ourselves," Quintero said. "We're here; we're part of the community. We're here to stay. We are your brothers, we are your sisters, we're your neighbors. We're all one person. You all belong here."

Pride of Tampa is a fully volunteer run organization.

Peggy Farrell, a board member for the Pride of Tampa, spearheaded volunteer efforts.

"We basically built this from the ground," Farell said. "We knew that having a grand-scale parade was not within the time or financial limits that we had to work with. And all of our funding came from the community. We have no big grants. We have no big donors."

What they're saying:

"We didn't get to do a parade this year, but we definitely want to make sure that we feel ourselves, that we have presence, we're out in the community," Quintero said. 

One family at the event said they came because they wanted their children to show love and acceptance for the LGBTQ+ community.

Mariah Korynas Gonzalezz, a 12-year-old, said that it's important to her that everyone feels accepted.

"Kids, especially my age, normally figure out what gender they like, and I think that everybody should express themselves the way they want to," Gonzalezz said. "This is a safe place for them and I don't like that they're trying to take it away."

Mayor Jane Castor attended Saturday's events to show support for those in the community.,

"It's important, again, to be an incredibly diverse city and to celebrate that diversity, you know, the uniqueness of every individual and ensuring that we're valuing our community, and it's wonderful," said Tampa Mayor Jane Castor.

"I feel like when they look at us, they see other things, but we're not freaks," said Stevie Nunez, Port Richey. "We're all about love and happiness and just being free and being yourself."

It is unclear what will happen in the future between the two groups.

Big picture view:

Soon local governments might not be able to attend pride events in their official capacity like Mayor Castor did today.

A bill recently passed out of the legislature banning municipal governments from promoting or funding activities related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).

The governor still needs to sign the bill to make it law.

In the case of pride events, it would prohibit the government from providing money to run the pride events and government officials could not attend officially or make declarations acknowledging it as Tampa officials did today.