McKinney Pride draws biggest crowd yet despite rain, organizers say

Rain and thunderstorms rolled over downtown McKinney, but they did not keep people away from Dr. Glenn Mitchell Memorial Park. Organizers said the fifth annual McKinney Pride Fair & Festival drew its largest crowd yet on Sunday, with attendance estimated at more than 800 and possibly above 1,000.

The turnout gave the event a visible boost in the city center, where the festival ran from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. and filled the park with a Pride Passport, a pop-up market of queer-affirming vendors and organizations, live entertainment, a DJ, voter registration, and family- and pet-friendly activities. Organizers said 48 vendors took part, along with dozens of volunteers and support from churches and nonprofits. Free swag, balloon animals and water stations rounded out a day built as much for families as for festivalgoers.

Julie Jernigan, secretary of the McKinney Pride Alliance, said an attendance figure above 800 was a conservative estimate and that the crowd dwarfed previous years, when attendance was about 300. The organization described the event as the largest in its five-year history, a sign that McKinney Pride has moved well beyond a small gathering into one of the city’s more visible June events.

Katie Scott, vice president of the McKinney Pride Alliance, said the festival began as a collaboration at The Groovy Coop and Carpe Diem Comics on the McKinney Square and has grown into a 501(c)(4) nonprofit with a governing board and wider community backing. That growth was on display in the mix of local businesses, civic groups and volunteers who turned out despite the weather.

The strong showing also fits into a broader Pride Month calendar across North Texas, with McKinney now among the region’s June celebrations. In Collin County, where the county itself carries the name of Collin McKinney, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, the turnout carried a particular local weight: a county seat city drew a bigger and more open crowd even as storms and political tension around Pride continue elsewhere.