Austin Pride faced organizational & financial challenges, still, LGBTQ+ community showed up, celebrated

AUSTIN (KXAN) — The Austin Pride Foundation (TAPF) put on Austin’s 35th annual Pride Festival and Parade Saturday, making the most of organizational and financial challenges it faced while planning this year’s celebration. 

Chris Garner, the festival director at Austin Pride, said this year’s festival was smaller than past years. Mostly because of a significant decrease in the foundation’s number of sponsors and vendors for the event, Garner said. 

He said in past years, there were around 150-200 vendors, but there were around 70 this year. The number of groups participating in the parade has also decreased from about 140 groups to 90 this year. Garner also estimated that the organization lost about $150-200,000 in donations and funding that came from sponsors that have pulled out since last year. 

The festival saw a few changes because of that — all entertainment was local, and entry was free, whereas in previous years, attendees had to pay for a ticket. 

Pride organizers said last month that the 2025 celebration would look different, citing “the current political climate” and funding.

Still, people showed up. 

Including Dustin and Elias, who renewed their vows on a whim in Fiesta Gardens at the Pride Festival Saturday. They’ve been together for five years so far and are readying themselves for many more. 

“Well, we were walking and someone asked us, and I guess we were talking about how we never do ‘embarrassing’ thing like that in public or for people we don’t know, but it was we kinda fun,” Dustin said. 

“And I said ‘okay’ and here we are,” Eli said. 

It was an especially remarkable symbol, too, because it was Dustin’s first time at any Pride celebration. 

“I’ll just say that, you know, you don’t have to necessarily look around and be afraid, it’s a safe space. and I think that means more than people think it does. it’s a safe place where we can be ourselves, and that’s what I love most.”

That’s exactly what Pride organizers hoped to provide to the community, Garner said.

“You know, it’s important to have a space like Pride,” Garner said. “Our goal is always to make everybody feel like they belong. Our goal is always to ensure that everybody’s included, that there’s a space that they can be themselves and their authentic selves.”

Garner said despite the challenges of putting on the event this year, TAPF “couldn’t just do nothing,” and that Pride is an integral part of the LGBT community. 

This year’s theme for the celebration was “Silence=Death.” TAPF posted on Facebook the day of the event, saying, “We do this because we love our community. We do this to give Austin a place to celebrate, to shine, and to feel seen—despite a world that too often tries to erase us, silence us, and stamp out our history.”

The post continued, “But the fight goes on. And that’s why this year’s theme is so powerful:

You can’t silence us. You can’t erase us. We’re not going anywhere. We’ve always been here. We will always be here.”

Several other couples renewed their vows at the same booth as Dustin and Eli on Saturday. One couple had been together for 60 years, another for 26 years. 

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