Pride Corpus Christi will celebrate the LGBTQIA+ community and allies on Saturday during the 2024 Pride Parade and Block Party at the Great Lawn at Water’s Edge Park.
The local nonprofit organization held the first parade in 2016, and the grassroots effort has grown every year, reaching a record number of 500 applicants in 2024. The event will feature more marchers, floats, vendors and a larger stage to showcase a lineup of local talent.
Once again slated for Water’s Edge Park, the parade route will be shorter this year — less than a mile along Shoreline Drive to Kinney Street — with vendors set up on the Great Lawn and food trucks offering their fare on Park Avenue.
For the first time, Pride Corpus Christi is partnering with Hilliard Law, a firm of social justice and trial lawyers based in Corpus Christi, to keep the focus on supporting local businesses and associations and giving back to the community, said Pride Corpus Christi President Jonathan Swindle.
“It’s been really important for me that the money we raise through this event goes toward people who live here and create our city’s culture,” he said, noting that the DJ, stage and lighting company are all local. “My goal has always been to engage local business, citizens and culture.”