The attractive, livable, and surprisingly progressive city of Louisville is the largest in Kentucky and also the state's center of GLBT culture. Each June, it's the site of the Kentuckiana Pride Festival, a lively two-day event of music, food, community organizing, and social hobnobbing. This year, the dates of Louisville's Gay Pride celebration are June 15 and June 16, 2012. Because Louisville is within a two- to three-hour drive of numerous cities throughout the Midwest and South, it's an especially popular gathering, drawing revelers from Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Nashville, and St. Louis, to name just a few nearby cities. It's also popular with gays and lesbians in the state's second-largest city, Lexington, which holds its own Pride Festival in late June.
Book rooms and compare rates on hotels in Louisville during Gay Pride.
More on Kentuckiana Gay Pride 2012 will be posted here as information becomes available. Here's a look at last year's event:
Louisville's Kentuckiana Gay Pride Festival includes two days of festivities (plus there's a Ms. KPF Pageant at the Connection gay nightclub, and a Friends of Pride party at the Belvedere). The first Kentuckiana Pride Festival Parade and Friday Night Fest take place at 8 pm - the parade steps off at 8 pm outside Tryangles gay bar downtown at 209 S. Preston St., and then continues along Market Street, turns onto Floyd Street, and finishes with a run down Main Street to site of the Kentuckiana Pride Festival, the Belvedere event space, which is along the downtown riverfront between 4th and 6th streets.
Downtown Louisville's Pride Festival continues on Saturday from noon until 11 pm, back at the Belvedere and features entertainment by CAZWELL, Roxy Cottontail, Adam Barta, and RuPaul's Drag Race beauties Jade Sotomayor and Phoenix.
Additionally, numerous bars as well as gay-popular restaurants, hotels, and shops have special events and parties throughout Pride Weekend. Check the The Word, a GLBT newspaper serving Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio, for for details. You can also find more about the area, including suggestions on dining, lodging, and gay nightlife, in my article on Louisville and Lexington. Also take a look at the excellent visitor site produced by the city's official tourism organization, the Louisville Convention and Visitors Bureau.
