After the 2014 Space Coast Pride Festival drew about 2,500 people to the Wickham Park Pavilion, organizers moved the annual LGBTQ celebration to downtown Eau Gallie and added a popular parade.
Now, the ever-growing gay pride event — which drew more than 12,000 people in 2019 — is again moving to a larger site: downtown Melbourne.
“We were out of space. There really wasn’t anywhere for us to expand to,” said Justin Cercone, president of Space Coast Pride, Brevard County’s largest LGBTQ organization.
“Of course, we didn’t know COVID was going to happen, but we’re still expecting that we’ll grow this year. And we didn’t want to risk not having enough space,” Cercone said.
Planning is underway for the Space Coast Pride Festival and Parade, scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 25 in downtown Melbourne.
The Rainbow Run 5K, a downtown race, will take place the night before, at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 24.
On the morning of Sept. 25, the parade will proceed from Hickory Street southward to New Haven Avenue, then turn east toward the downtown retail district. Vendors will set up for the afternoon street festival — which will include food trucks and an entertainment stage — from Livingston Street (near the post office) to the railroad tracks, Cercone said.
“We’re really excited, because we’ve had such a great acceptance and welcoming from some of the merchants in historic downtown Melbourne. While we have loved being in EGAD and always had a great experience there, we were sorry to have to leave,” Cercone said.
“Parking and space in general — because we weren’t able to cross over Eau Gallie (Boulevard) — became too much of an issue,” he said.
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The roots of Space Coast Pride’s festivals date to 2007. That’s when the predecessor group Living Room of Brevard threw what was touted as the county’s first gay pride picnic at a small Babcock Street community center in Melbourne.
In 2008, the event evolved into the Space Coast Gay and Lesbian Pride Festival at the Wickham Park Pavilion in Melbourne.
The September 2019 Space Coast Pride Festival and Parade in Eau Gallie featured more than 12,000 attendees, 170 vendors, more than 60 parade units, two entertainment stages and an indoor vendor expo.
The coronavirus pandemic canceled plans for the 2020 event.
On the advocacy front, Cercone said Space Coast Pride supports transgender students at Brevard Public Schools. District guidelines on trans bathrooms and sports drew dozens of dueling protesters and intense, vitriolic exchanges during heated Brevard School Board meetings in March.
Tuesday — on the first day of Pride Month, the month of June — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law banning transgender female athletes from participating in women’s sports in high school and college.
Space Coast Pride supported a Tuesday afternoon sign-waving rally protesting DeSantis’ decision at the intersection of Stadium Parkway and Judge Fran Jamieson Way in Viera.
“We’re actually seeing that we’re growing, because we’re getting a lot more communication from people reaching out who are moving to the area,” Cercone said.
“They email or message us and say, ‘Hey, we’re moving to the area. Are there nice areas we should look at? Are there specific places and businesses that we should go to?’ So we’re definitely seeing a very big change in the community, and how everyone interacts and works with us,” he said.
For updates on the upcoming festival and parade, visit spacecoastpride.org or the Space Coast Pride Facebook page at facebook.com/SpaceCoastPride.
Rick Neale is the South Brevard Watchdog Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Neale at 321-242-3638 or rneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @RickNeale1. To subscribe: https://cm.floridatoday.com/specialoffer/
