This weekend, Ithaca will celebrate Pride Month with a bustling three days of festivities at the 2026 Ithaca Pride Festival Weekend hosted by the Ithaca Pride Alliance. The festival will take on the theme, “United We Rise,” and will run from Friday to Sunday, offering activities like concerts, dance parties and vendors.
The festival kicks off Friday night with the RainbowFest Queer Rock Concert featuring drag, visual and musical performances from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. at The Nocturnal Cafe. On Saturday, the opening ceremony will be held from 3 to 10 p.m. at Bernie Milton Pavilion, lighting up the Ithaca Commons with speakers, community tabling and an all-ages dance party featuring DJs and a light show. Pride in the Park will wrap up the festival on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. with over 70 vendors, performances and activities.
This is the festival’s third year, and it is completely volunteer-run. The website encourages volunteers to sign-up and offers shifts “for any ability.”
Luca Maurer will serve as the festival’s Grand Marshall this year. Maurer is the executive director for student equity, inclusion and belonging at Ithaca College. He was also the founding director of Ithaca College’s Center for LGBT Education, Outreach & Services, which will celebrate its 25th anniversary in November.
This year’s festival will be “double the footprint” of last year’s, according to Andrew Scheldorf, chair of the Ithaca Pride Alliance and festival director. This year, Pride in the Park will feature over 70 vendors on Sunday, compared to last year’s 56. The festival will also take place in three separate blocks and in the Ithaca Commons compared to the two blocks shut down last year.
Scheldorf estimated a turnout of between four and five thousand people this year, and described the festival as a “grassroots organized celebration of the local queer community.”
“Ithaca Pride is really a celebration of anyone who is queer and wants to come out,” Scheldorf said. “It’s really exciting and uplifting to see that we are able to organize and plan a festival that everyone is able to attend and participate in.”
They explained that IPA prioritized booking local vendors for the festival, which aligns with the organization’s mission of local advocacy.
IPA prioritized accessibility in its planning, according to Scheldorf. Both the opening ceremony and Pride in the Park will include dedicated access hours, where there will be encouraged masking, as well as no amplified sound or stage lights.
Scheldorf also explained that IPA plans for the festival to be less tightly packed to encourage accessibility.
“It's really exciting and uplifting to see that we are able to organize and plan a festival that everyone is able to attend and participate in, regardless of your own personal situation,” Scheldorf said.
Notably, Ithaca Pride is open to all ages and is a substance-free event.
“Queerness comes in all ages,” Scheldorf said. “We also need to recognize that queer families exist, and it is important to include queer parents with kids in the celebration and make it possible for them to participate.”
They also explained that IPA prioritizes events which are free and open to the public, making the choice to be family-friendly a logistical one as well.
The IPA was founded in December 2023 and its first festival was held in June 2024. According to Scheldorf, the festival was planned directly through Ithaca’s queer community — a departure from previous efforts to organize pride events in Ithaca, they added.
Scheldorf claimed that many community leaders and members once believed Ithaca was “so queer and inclusive” that it didn’t need a festival. But Scheldorf and the IPA thought otherwise.
Scheldorf explained the meaning behind this year’s theme, “United we Rise.”
“This moment in time in the country is pretty scary for queer folks, but it's also scary for any marginalized community in this country,” Scheldorf said. “We can't rise in isolation. This is a celebration of the queer community, but it also needs to be a celebration of allyship to other marginalized communities and other intersectional identities.”
Scheldorf also encouraged people to volunteer.
“There are positions that are more for an extroverted, social butterfly type personality, or there are ones for people that would rather be in the background and work silently to support the festival,” they said. “Anyone of all abilities and interests can definitely find something to do for the festival if they would like to participate.”
Everett Chambala is an assistant news editor for the 144th board. He is working as the primary summer reporter for The Cornell Daily Sun through The Sun’s summer fellowship program.
Everett Chambala is a member of the Class of 2027 in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations. He is a staff writer for the News department and can be reached at echambala@cornellsun.com.
