The Knox Pride Festival and Parade scheduled for this upcoming weekend has been canceled due to organizers being unable to secure liability insurance for the event.
John Camp, executive director of the Knox Pride Community and Resource Center, made the announcement Wednesday morning.
“Pride Fest 2025 and the parade have been canceled. We have worked closely with the city to keep this from happening and they have been wonderful partners with us, but we were unable to secure liability insurance for the festival and parade at the last minute,” Camp said in a video posted to Facebook.
Organizers of all special events outside city-sponsored programs or activities held in Knoxville must provide a certificate of insurance covering the City of Knoxville.
“I know this is disheartening, disappointing, and upsetting to a lot of folks, it’s extremely upsetting for us, and nothing we wanted to come with to talk to you about today…We will work to have a solution for 2026 so we don’t run into this problem again,” he added.
Camp went on to suggest that Knoxville may not be entirely safe to hold such LGBTQ+ events.
“The other thing is safety is a huge concern right now for our community around the country and a very real thing here in Knoxville. Those two things have been difficult this year especially. So we apologize that we were unable to fill our promise to have a Pride Fest for you this year,” he said.
Camp encouraged those who planned on attending the Knoxville event to travel south to the Chattanooga Pride Fest, happening on Sunday.
Knox Pride was scheduled to take place on Gay Street in Knoxville this Friday and Saturday. The festival and parade have been held in October instead of June, “Pride Month,” since 2022.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Knox Pride Parade 2022” by Aw, Snap / Knox Pride.
What a pity. No parade for the pitiful lot.
“The other thing is safety is a huge concern right now for our community around the country and a very real thing here in Knoxville.”
Nobody cared about this event happening in Knoxville before. The real reason they can’t raise the money is that companies have realized that sponsoring controversial groups and events is bad for business. Letting the trans+ groups attach on to their cause has done more damage to their image than anything. The latest grifters are pedophiles rebranding as minor attracted persons.
Ah, gee, what a shame. Join the real world and get a taste of what normal America has been going through for the past decade or so.
Gee, that’s too bad. Now all the sick people can’t prance around and cosplay their twisted sexual pretending.