Tampa Pride Street Festival brings pride and philantrophy to Ybor streets

TAMPA, Fla. - The 8th annual Tampa Pride kicked off Saturday at the Cuban Club courtyard in Ybor City, where 100,000 people are expected to attend throughout the day and evening.

"Our Cuban Club courtyard venue has all of our daytime entertainment, our night party, we’ve got some great VIP vendors here as well, we’re super excited, a lot of energy in this one space right here, but it doesn’t end here, we’ve got just a block over on 8th Avenue is where our HCC vendor is, and then just one block beyond that on 7th Ave is where our 2022 diversity parade will be this year," said Trevor James, the VP of Administration and Sponsorships for Tampa Pride.

Every vendor spot was taken and every spot for a float in the parade was taken, so it was a sold-out show.

"We get to build community and show visibility in the streets, in festivals, and then we make sure that our people are taken care of by making sure there’s a significant impact in non-profit land," said Steven Romeo with Music City Creative.  "Pride is not just about exposure for businesses but giving back to the community.  This is a time when the queer community gets to pool their resources and make sure that we’re impacting things like CAN and AHF and fighting the HIV epidemic and moving whatever the ‘gay agenda’ is for you, but taking those steps forward to increase visibility." 

Pride festivals are big parties. They’re also philanthropic events that raise a lot of money for organizations locally and across the country.

At this year’s Tampa Pride, dozens of local organizations to international brands donated between $500 and $25,000.

100,000 people are expected to attend the event.

For more information, visit: https://tampapride.org/