This year, there are six different Pride festivals happening throughout Rhode Island

By MATTHEW LAWRENCE Beacon Media Contributor Jun 2, 2026 Updated Jun 3, 2026

This story was originally published in the Warwick Beacon, a publication partner of Ocean State Stories.

Read this story in its original form and all other Beacon stories by clicking here.

The first Pride events began in 1970, one year after the protests that took place outside the Stonewall Inn, a Mafia-run bar that catered to gay men, transgender women, and other LGBTQ+ community members. A police raid late on a Friday evening led to a violent confrontation between bar patrons and police officers. 

One year after the raid, protest marches were held in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York, where the event was named Christopher Street Liberation Day after the West Village street that became a hub of gay activism in the 1970s. 

Pride first came to Rhode Island in 1976. As the state prepared its bicentennial celebrations, a group calling itself the Toward a Gayer Bicentennial Committee applied to the state’s official Bicentennial Commission for a three-part event: a downtown Pride parade and a forum called the Congress of People with Gay Concerns, which it wanted to hold at the Old State House on Benefit Street. Additionally, the LGBTQ+-friendly Metropolitan Community Church hoped to lead a midnight prayer service. The 25-member Bicentennial Commission chaired by Patrick T. Conley denied their application. 

On top of that, Mayor Vincent ‘Buddy’ Cianci and the Providence police chief denied the group a parade permit, arguing that the city couldn’t condone behavior that was inherently illegal. The act of sodomy was a crime in Rhode Island until 1998, meaning that any sexual relations between men could possibly result in jail time. 

The Towards a Gayer Bicentennial committee sued the Bicentennial Commission and just one day before the parade the committee won on both fronts: the right to hold their Congress at the Old State House, and the opportunity for a march to be held in downtown Providence. The first parade only drew about seventy people, some of whom (known as the 76ers) still march in the parade fifty years later. 

Rhode Island Pride is very different now than it was that first year. The festival draws tens of thousands of people and the parade takes place after dark. 

Pride parades in many cities have grown from protest marches to large celebratory festivals with internationally famous pop and electronic musicians performing, but more community-oriented Pride events have been popping up within the last decade in some surprising locations, including small cities and even rural towns. 

This year’s events take place in four out of five Rhode Island counties, with events scheduled for Woonsocket, Wakefield, Barrington, Newport, Providence, and Block Island. 

South County Pride

Saturday, June 13

Noon to 7 p.m.

Contemporary Theatre Company 

327 Main Street, Wakefield 

In 2020, South Kingstown High School student Magnolia Longworth created a Pride car parade. The following year, Longworth and Evan Travis created the county’s first Pride festival. 

“When planning the first pride event in 2021, co-founders Magnolia and Evan discussed their vision for a local LGBT+ event that was fun and engaging but had more of a focus on community,” according to the organization’s website. “They wanted to show that there is a queer community and history in southern Rhode Island.” 

The day will include performances from Grizzlies, Quorus, and Big Nazo. More information is being released on the festival’s Instagram page, @southcountypride.

Woonsocket Pride Festival

Sunday, June 14

12pm–6pm

River Island Park

Bernon Street, Woonsocket

During 2020, Rhode Island Pride reached out to eight municipalities to organize virtual raisings of the ever-evolving rainbow-colored Pride flag at city and town halls throughout the state. Seven agreed. Woonsocket was the exception. According to the Woonsocket Pride website, then-mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt refused. 

That led organizers to feel that the city needed its own festival. 

“The former Mayor’s obstruction turned our plans for a joyous and exciting celebration of arts and culture into a protest,” the website reads. “Hundreds of community members gathered together with supporting organizations and mutual aid organizers to disrupt traffic and march from River Island Park to WWII Memorial Park to continue the first-ever Woonsocket Pride rally.”

Attendance at Woonsocket Pride has grown to over 1,000 people in the last two years. This year’s festival includes “drag performances and local artistic talent, speeches from community leaders, food trucks and vendors, tables for local organizations, resources for the community, and a ton of other activities” including a queer artists market. 

Barrington Pride

Sunday, June 14

2pm–6pm

Sherwood Field

14 Congress Road, Barrington

Barrington Pride also began in 2020, when the Town Council passed a resolution to fly a Pride flag at the town hall. 

“Then each year after that we had a flag raising ceremony at town hall, a few people made speeches, and then the people in attendance would walk down the main street and then back to town hall,” says co-founder Jacob Brier. 

For its seventh year, the festival is moving. “We decided to move it away from Town Hall to a public park,” Brier says, “and we’re going to have a band, a few speakers, some poetry, and a community resource booth.” Brier says there will also be food trucks and a bounce house.

Since the festival is happening in a neighborhood park this year, the parade element didn’t make a lot of sense. 

“Last year we probably had 200 people for the flag raising and the speeches, but this year we’re expecting between 400 and 600 people.”

“People are really excited about it,” Brier says about an event they describe as a “festive, family friendly celebration.” 

“There are some elements in town that say, ‘Why do you need a pride element? Why can’t you just celebrate America?’”

“And those elements are a minority,” Brier says. “The town council has unanimously approved these resolutions each year. Last year the town established Barrington as a sanctuary community for the LGBT+ community, so no town resources can be used to discriminate based on gender or sexual identity. Barrington is a fairly progressive government.”

Rhode Island PrideFest

Saturday, June 20

11:30am–8:00pm – Parade

District Park

120 Peck St, Providence 

The state’s oldest and largest Pride festival takes place every year on the third Saturday of the month. The daytime festival takes place in District Park, on the downtown side of the Mike Van Leesten Pedestrian Bridge, and then the parade travels downtown where the city’s bars and restaurants will be packed with thousands of people celebrating. 

This festival happens one day after Scotland plays Morocco at Gillette (“Boston”) Stadium. With the Scottish fans headquartered in Providence this year, there may be two contingents celebrating downtown that weekend.  

Newport Pride

Saturday, June 27

11am parade

12pm–5pm festival

Great Friends Meeting House

1 Farewell Street, Newport 

Newport Pride is the state’s second oldest Pride, launching in 2018 and incorporating as a nonprofit in 2022. 

“We start in the morning with a parade that starts and ends at Great Friends Meeting House,” says Executive Director Josh Klemp. “We have a ribbon cutting this year and then PrideFest. Mother Pizzeria is hosting a pre-afterparty, then we have Pride After Dark at the Quencher.”

“For Pride After Dark, we have a theme of Sailors and Sirens and we are encouraging people to dress the part.”

Other events taking place throughout the month can be found at newportprideri.org. 

Klemp took over as Executive Director in November, so this is his first year running the festival. “It’ll all be new to me,” he laughs. He expects 4,000-5,000 attendees, depending on weather. 

Newport Pride runs a year-round Pride Center with events ranging from crafting and yoga to drop-in hours for victims of domestic violence. 

Block Island Pride

September 11–September 13

The year’s sixth Pride event will take place just after the Labor Day rush on Block Island. Visit queerblockisland.com to learn about this year’s events as they are announced.