Columbus Pride
About This Event
Columbus Pride is run by Stonewall Columbus, the city's LGBTQ+ community centre, and it is one of the biggest Pride weekends in the Midwest. Columbus has a large, settled queer population around the Short North and German Village, and the event feels local rather than touristy: mostly Ohioans and plenty of families.
It has two parts. The Pride March steps off on Saturday morning from Broad and High by the Ohio Statehouse and heads north up High Street to Goodale Park, with spectators packing the sidewalks through the Short North. The festival fills Goodale Park on Friday evening and all day Saturday, with stages, community booths, food and a resource fair. Entry is free, with donations going to Stonewall's year-round work. The march itself began small: Stonewall says the first Columbus Pride march in 1982 drew around 200 people.
The weekend usually falls in mid-to-late June, Friday and Saturday. The Short North bars, Union Cafe and Axis among them, are the after-parties, and they are rammed. Downtown hotels sell out early and charge Pride rates, so book as soon as the dates go up, or stay a short drive out and use a rideshare. June in Columbus can be hot and stormy, so check the forecast for the morning march.
The 2026 edition ran on 19 and 20 June under the theme "Until We're All Free", which Stonewall's director Densil Porteous framed around collective liberation at a hostile moment for LGBTQ+ rights in Ohio. The march stepped off at 10:30 on the Saturday. Stonewall puts the weekend's total draw at over 700,000 visitors across Columbus and Central Ohio, an organiser figure that has not been independently counted. The 2027 dates hadn't been announced when we checked.
Where to stay during Columbus Pride
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Columbus Pride is an LGBTQ festival in Columbus, Ohio, hosted by Stonewall Columbus Ohio.
