WORCESTER — What a difference a year makes.
Last year's Worcester Pride festival was unexpectedly cut short, with visitors running for cover when a powerful rainstorm blew in. Tornadoes touched down in nearby communities.
This year, Mother Nature must have been in good spirits, because there were no weather hiccups. Just a warm day with plenty of sun to welcome the expected 30,000 visitors on Saturday, Sept. 12, on the Worcester Common and it's nearby streets for what was billed as the city's largest annual cultural festival.
"It's beautiful here," said festival director Ariana DelloStritto while tending to the many duties that come with overseeing a live event that had more than 200 vendors. He was aided by a dedicated five-member organizing team and 20 volunteers to keep it all running smoothly.
"These people," said DelloStritto of the crowd milling about her, "want to be here and it's important for them to be here."
This was the festival's 51st year since the first one that was held in 1975. It hasn't been a continuous run due to a brief sabbatical during the COVID-19 pandemic. More than $140,000 was raised for Pride Worcester 2026, said DelloStritto, including more than $60,000 from Massachusetts250, a statewide initiative to celebrate 250 years of America's independence.
This year's festival also had something it's never had before. A tribute wall of photos lined the Worcester Common of transgender and gender-expansive residents who passed away. Each image was topped with the words "We Remember," and festival signs noted their deaths were "unreported" or their "authentic truth was spurned even in death."
The Trump administration's policies that, participants said, have targeted the LGBTQ+ community was an undercurrent running through the festival, which was dominated with the colors of the rainbow pride flag and expressions of peace, love and freedom.
"It's always on my mind," said Tina Tequila, a Worcester drag performer who said she has attended every Worcester Pride festival since 2018. "The unnecessary discrimination for just being ourselves. We have to stand up and voice our concerns that effect our community."
Kate and Kristy Grillo from Rhode Island milled about the festival. The married couple mentioned that it's nice to have a place where they feel safe in the current political climate.
Health care access for the LGBTQ+ community is a hot-button issue, with advocates saying they face roadblocks from Trump administration policies to curb it. Many local social-service providers had representatives at the festival, including AIDS Project Worcester. Carla Norris, the nonprofit's director of client services, noted challenges for the transgender community to receive culturally-sensitive care.
Norris hears from many of her clients who say they can't find providers who have the cultural awareness and responsiveness to meet the needs of the transgender community. "We need medical providers here to remove their biases," she said.
Meanwhile, there's been little movement on a $500,000 Trans Resilience Fund, according to DelloStritto. The fund, according to Pride Worcester, was created when the Worcester City Council passed a resolution in 2025 that established Worcester as a sanctuary city for queer and gender-diverse people.
"We keep pushing the city for information on the fund, but we're not getting clear answers," said DelloStritto. "We have to amplify the transgender community's existence."
As for this year's festival falling on the same day as the Jewish New Year of Rosh Hashanah, a timing factor that some have questioned, DelloStritto said her team considered rescheduling the event that normally falls on the first Saturday after Labor Day. However, logistics were too difficult to make that happen.
So the event marched on, including a celebratory march that traversed the Common. It noticeably smaller in size compared to last year's march, but it didn't damper the excitement.
Drag performer Dale LePage was full of enthusiasm, decked out in a brightly-colored outfit that had large wings with the pride flag's colors. LePage proudly mentioned that at age 60, she's the oldest-performing drag queen in Worcester.
"There's strength in numbers," said LePage. "I'm honored to be a part of Worcester's LGBTQ+ community. We're strong, diverse, and awesome."
Tina Tequila will second that.
Wearing a blue Spandex bodysuit, tall black books, a spiked choker, and a sash for winning this year's Pride Worcester Pageant, Tequila was gearing up to perform on the festival's main stage to sing the Jessie J song "Wild" that she said was about loving your life and being proud of who you are.
"I'm proud to be a member of this beloved community on this special day," said Tequila, who moments earlier got a "You look stunning" compliment from someone in the crowd.
Contact Henry Schwan at [email protected]. Follow him on X: @henrytelegram
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: With clear skies and enthusiasm, Worcester Pride Festival fills the Common