Charleston Pride is a week-long festival that takes place annually in

Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint o ...

. The festival is a celebration of the Charleston

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

community, highlighted by educational events, parties, networking opportunities, and its popular

parade A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, float (parade), floats, or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually ce ...

and rally. Charleston's first Pride event, a three-day event including a parade, rally and before and after-party and beach day, was organized by Charleston Pride Organization in 2009 with the first Annual Parade on May 15, 2010. Over 4,000 people showed up for the first parade. Charleston Pride Festival, Inc. was established in 2011 to build on the momentum of that first

Pride Pride is defined by Merriam-Webster as "reasonable self-esteem" or "confidence and satisfaction in oneself". A healthy amount of pride is good, however, pride sometimes is used interchangeably with "conceit" or "arrogance" (among other words) wh ...

event, and organizers continued festivities for three days, adding the film festival and art walk. In its third year, 2012, a fourth day was added to the schedule for beach activities. In 2013, the festival was lengthened to fill an entire week and it also marked Charleston Pride's move to downtown Charleston. Local organizers and media report attendance of 8,000 to 11,000 at the rally in Riverfront Park during Charleston's third annual event, and is showing to be a possible force in Charleston's tourist industry. Along with the annual festival, the organization fundraises throughout the year to support its mission to educate the community on LGBT issues, and assists with handling crisis intervention and suicide prevention among youth who identify as LGBT or question their sexuality. Charleston Pride Festival, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) public charity.

External links

Charleston Pride website

References

LGBT in South Carolina Pride parades in the United States {{LGBT-event-stub