St Pete Pride President Byron Green-Calisch speaks at this year’s Stonewall Reception. (Photo by Ryan Williams-Jent)
ST. PETERSBURG | St Pete Pride cancelled Shades of Pride July 3, less than one week after the close of its 24th annual celebration that organizers say fell short of fundraising goals.
The signature event centers Black, LGBTQ+ voices, culture and creativity each year. It was originally set for June 19 to align with Juneteenth but was ultimately rescheduled to July 19.
St Pete Pride hoped to raise enough funds during this year’s finale to cover remaining expenses for the 2026 celebration, hold Shades of Pride this month and set the organization up for next year’s 25th anniversary. Dr. Byron Green-Calisch set an internal goal of $100-150,000 and says $40,000 was raised, though efforts are ongoing.
Prior to welcoming an estimated 350,000 people to Downtown St. Petersburg and the Grand Central District, organizers solicited the community for help. Green-Calisch detailed the need for financial support at this year’s Stonewall Reception and more.
Ahead of this year’s Pride weekend, the board also launched a capital campaign asking attendees to bring at least $1 to support their efforts.
“With sponsors pulling back and the cost of producing large-scale community events continuing to rise, your support has never been more important,” St Pete Pride shared.
“If every person attending donated at least one dollar, it’d make a meaningful difference in helping St Pete Pride continue creating the celebration our community knows and loves,” they continued. “Every donation, no matter the size, helps strengthen St Pete Pride’s future and brings us one step closer to celebrating our 25th anniversary in 2027 with the community that made it all possible.”
“We normally don’t kick off our fundraising season until late December, early January,” Green-Calisch says. “But we realized that if we had a little bit more runway, it would slingshot us into a really good push for next year.
“One of the things that we face with every one of our Pride seasons is when money comes in and when money goes out,” he adds. While St Pete Pride is contractually obligated to hold the parade, for example, other signature events like Shades of Pride are more flexible.
“When we got to the beginning of June, looking at how money was coming in and when our sponsors were getting us those dollars … we had to look at how to fund the things we were doing and the things that we wanted to do,” he notes. “That’s why we pushed Shades; we had a vendor that was going to allow us to change the date.”
Its ultimate cancellation “was not a decision we made lightly,” the board noted June 3.
“Over the past year, St Pete Pride has been transparent about the financial challenges our organization is facing,” they advised via social media. “Like most LGBTQ+ organizations, sponsorships have declined, and the cost of producing community events has continued to rise.
“The reality is that, without financial support from our community, St Pete Pride will look different in the years ahead,” they continued. “Events may become smaller, less frequent, or, in some cases, no longer possible. As we prepare to celebrate our 25th anniversary in 2027, we remain committed to serving Tampa Bay’s LGBTQ+ community.”
The news came with an ask: that supporters make a financial contribution.
“Every dollar, no matter the amount, helps sustain our work and strengthen our future,” the board noted. “Without your financial support, we will continue to face difficult decisions like this one.”
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“It was never my hope to cancel Shades of Pride,” Green-Calisch stresses. “As a Black, pansexual member of the community, this was the program I would never want to take away — so in adjusting things to save it, it was our hope to figure out how we could do it.”
St Pete Pride plans to release detailed information about the cost of events soon, he adds. As for the rest of 2026’s programming — including Sapphic St. Pete, which now falls under St Pete Pride’s purview — he notes decisions are “moment to moment.”
“Our financial situation can change,” Green-Calisch says. “We had a donor, right before the parade, give $10,000 out of nowhere and it was phenomenal… we really are in a position where individual donors are writing the history of St Pete Pride in real time.”
View our photos from this year’s St Pete Pride here and support their efforts here.
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