KNOXVILLE Tenn. (WATE) — A local celebration is back, just in a different way. After the cancellation of this year’s Knox Pride Fest and parade, the Knoxville community wasn’t ready to give up.
This comes after Knox Pride announced on October 1st that the annual festival and parade were canceled due to safety concerns and an inability to secure liability insurance. 6 News spoke with local organizers who decided to do what they could to save the Pride Fest this year.
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When owners of the Capricorn Coffee House in Knoxville, Dani and Fae Culver, received the news about the cancellation of the 2025 Knox Pride Fest, they knew something had to be done and stepped up in a big way. They were devastated that the LGBTQ+ community would not have a place to gather and celebrate this year.
“We’re here to be with the queer community and give them a space to come and celebrate who they are and who we are. When we heard that Knox Pride got canceled last weekend, we really felt for our Knox Pride board, and we wanted to just come together and say, how can we step up? Because it takes all of us here, a community,” explained Dani.So, within a week, they chose to expand their own Full Moon festival, turning the parking lot into a vibrant hub of pride.“We know how important that is for so many people, for everyone right, to show up as your authentic self and be celebrated for that,” said Fae, “and so we just wanted to kind of keep expanding that outward, not only in the salon and the coffee house, but throughout the community as well.”The event included local vendors, artists, and performers all coming together to celebrate what makes them unique…