Columbus Pride 2026

Columbus Pride is one of the largest LGBTQ+ events in the United States — an annual celebration centred on the Short North Arts District and Goodale Park that draws approximately 750,000 attendees, making it consistently one of the five largest Pride events in the country. The scale surprises people who have not been paying attention to Columbus's growth: this is a Pride event that approaches the attendance of Chicago and New York, produced by a city in the heart of Ohio. The event centres on a parade along High Street through the Short North — the same corridor where Columbus's gay bars are concentrated, making the parade literally march through the gay neighbourhood — and a festival at Goodale Park at the northern end of the Short North. Multiple stages, hundreds of community organisation booths, food and drink vendors, and the specific atmosphere of a Pride event that is both enormous in scale and embedded in a real LGBTQ+ neighbourhood combine to make Columbus Pride one of the most distinctive events in the American LGBTQ+ calendar. The event draws from across Ohio and the broader Midwest and Appalachian region — communities for whom Columbus Pride is the primary annual LGBTQ+ gathering. Stonewall Columbus produces the event.