Dallas Pride Festival Moving to June, Fair Park in 2019

Dallas' annual Pride festival is moving from September to June to align with national events and to help grow the event into a world-class LGBT Pride celebration by 2020, organizers say.

The city's annual music festival and parade will now be held the first weekend in June and, in another departure, will be held in Fair Park instead of the Cedar Springs/Oak Lawn area, according to a news release from Jaron Turnbow, executive director of Dallas Tavern Guild and Dallas Pride.

According to Turnbow, the Miller Light Music Festival in Fair Park will include the Family Pride Zone and Teen Pride on June 1, 2019, from 11 a.m. until 10 p.m. in Dallas Fair Park's Esplanade and Centennial Building. Organizers said the to Fair Park triples the available event space while adding restrooms, air conditioning, parking, DART access and cover from inclement weather.

"Fair Park is ecstatic to work with us and joins our vision for growing into a LGBTQ Pride celebration that will rival other major cities," Turnbow said in a prepared statement.

The Alan Ross Texas Freedom Parade is also moving to Fair Park for 2019. Organizers said a streetscape beautification project along Cedar Springs could put the traditional parade route in jeopardy.

"We cannot safely have a parade through a major construction zone and we do not want to impede on the improvement project. To ensure that the parade happens, we have decided to relocate the parade to Fair Park for 2019," Turnbow said.

Officials have not said if they plan to move the parade back to the popular route along Cedar Springs for 2020 and beyond.