Atlanta Pride Selects Date for 2009 Festival

Atlanta Pride Selects Date for 2009 Festival

The 2009 Atlanta Pride Festival will be held at Central Park on the weekend of June 26, 27, and 28, 2009.


ATLANTA, October 6, 2008 – After reaching consensus with the City of Atlanta and the other Class A festivals in town that Pride 2009 would be held in Central Park, the Atlanta Pride Committee has selected June 26th, 27th, and 28th as the weekend for next year’s festival.

“We know that the community has been waiting anxiously for the dates for Pride 2009.” says Deirdre Heffernan, Pride’s Board Chair, “However, we first needed to ensure a venue that included a workable park. Once we secured Central Park, we were able to take the necessary steps to move our event back to the more traditional and historically significant month of June.”

This return to June is supported by a month-long poll run by Atlanta Pride on its website which asked the community in which month it would like to see Pride held. June was the most favored response at 41% of the votes cast.

The final selection of the actual dates in June was dictated by the availability of the venue. “We are fortunate that Central Park is available for the last full weekend in June. Having Pride 2009 return to a green space in the month of June will really bring the event back to its roots,” said Heffernan.

As the Pride Committee now moves into program planning for the 2009 festival, it encourages community members to forward ideas on how to improve future Pride events by emailing ideas to newideas@atlantapride.org. “Obviously we have time constraints, financial limitations, and city ordinances that impact the services and entertainment we are able to offer, but Pride is constantly working to find ways for our organization and festival to better meet the needs of our community. And we would love to hear from the community how their Pride experiences might be enhanced,” says Heffernan.


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The Atlanta Pride Festival, an event organized by the non-profit Atlanta Pride Committee, promotes unity, visibility and self-esteem among lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgender persons. The celebration traditionally includes entertainment, a marketplace, charity poker tournament, slam poetry event, commitment ceremony, dyke march and parade. The festival is supported through donations and sponsorships.