Crowds pack 2026 Twin Cities Pride Festival in Minneapolis for ‘queer joy’
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The annual Twin Cities Pride Festival in Minneapolis kicked off Saturday with sunshine.
Rainbows — found in creative outfits, glittery makeup and all sorts of trinkets and flags — covered Loring Park.
Thousands packed the festivities across the 34-acre park, enjoying music, food and stops at over 650 vendors.
More than 500,000 people were expected at Twin Cities Pride events this weekend, according to programming director Kelsey Alto.
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New this year was the world’s largest rubber duck: the 61-foot tall Mama Duck. She and her son, Timmy, made their Twin Cities debut at the Pride festival.
Alto said organizers brought the ducks to make attendees smile after the surge in federal immigration enforcement over the winter and legislation nationwide targeting LGBTQ+ people.
“We really wanted to just do something that is queer joy because queer joy is an act of resistance, and I think we all could use a little bit of joy right now,” Alto said.
The weekend’s events started with a reception Thursday for the 2026 grand marshal — represented this year by Minnesota's entire LGBTQ+ community — with a Youth Night for people under 21 on Friday. The festival included a full day of pet-centered programming on Saturday, in addition to a 5K run and parade set for Sunday.
Alto said this year’s theme was “Our Voices, Our Future.”
“It's a dark time for our community, but it's not our first dark time as a community. Pride gives our community a chance to come together, lift up one another's voices, celebrate our resilience especially after the events of the first few months of this year,” Alto said.
