Fayetteville PRIDE was started in 2017 as an interest meeting, in a local library, where a group of like-minded individuals came together to organize a Pride celebration. Soon after, we knew we were more than just party planners and the modern vision of Fayetteville PRIDE as a non-profit community driven organization was born. We fulfilled the first part of that vision by achieving our IRS 501c3 status in October 2017, just six months after the original Board of Directors formed the organization and wrote our official bylaws. The Board continued their hard work by planning community picnics and meetings, taking on community service projects, gathering LGBTQ* resources, building partnerships, and spreading education and awareness.

Although Fayetteville PRIDE is more than just a festival planning organization, the Pride Festival each year is our biggest fundraising and community event. On June 22, 2018 the inaugural Pride FEST celebration was held in downtown Fayetteville, with an amazing attendance of 1500 people, Fayetteville PRIDE and it’s volunteers and supporters showed the surrounding community that we were here to stay. Having already outgrown our first location, Our second annual Pride FEST moved to Festival Park in 2019 with an attendance of more than 5000 festival goers, 100 volunteers, 80 vendors  and dozens of sponsors and entertainers. We were forced to take a break in 2020, and creatively restructure our traditional festival in 2021. However, we brought back our festival bigger and better than ever in 2022 with almost 100 vendors, 100 volunteers, entertainment, a community art project and over 6000 festival attendees. We look forward to continuing and improving the tradition in 2023 and for many years to come. 

As Fayetteville PRIDE continues to grow, we envision ourselves as a community resource for all of those in Cumberland County, and we remain ever dedicated to our original mission.