Twin Cities Pride organizers expect festival to deliver big boost to businesses

Rainbow flags lined city streets and music echoed through downtown Minneapolis Friday as Pride weekend officially got underway. 

Twin Cities Pride at Loring Park started Friday with youth night, drawing thousands of teens and parents to kick off one of the city's largest celebrations. 

Organizers expect more than 400,000 thousand people to move through downtown over the course of the weekend, creating a major boost for the local economy. 

A 2018 University of Minnesota study estimated Pride attendees spent more than $7 million while attending the festival. Organizers say crowds have only gotten larger and more vendors have signed on. They believe the impact is more than that now.

But behind the celebrations, organizers say this year was different, using the time they typically spend planning to support community members through Operation Metro Surge.

"We weren't focused on it. Nobody was really focused on registration in January or February or March," Kelsey Alto, Twin Cities Pride director of programming, said. "So, it was a lot of light planning and people trying to figure out what they were going to do."

And the corporate support the event once had isn't there anymore. As major companies rolled back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, including Target, organizers said local businesses stepped in to help fill the gap. 

In 2025, 1,700 donors helped raise more than $100,000.

"We want to support all the businesses that support us," Alto said. "There are so many vendors that are here who make a good portion of their proceeds for the year just at this event, and so it's so important that they're able to come and people are still patronizing them."

Organizers say the biggest story of this year's Pride celebration is the community's willingness to support one another.

"We are here together," Alto said. "We help each other. We know how to come together."

Parking will be extremely limited throughout the weekend and Metro Transit is once again offering free rides to the festival.

Click here for more information about Twin Cities Pride.