by Paul Ricci
On Saturday August 22, the 2026 Johnstown LGBTQ Pride Fest was held at the Cambria County War Memorial. It is also known as the 1st Summit Arena.
It was organized once again by John DeBartola. It was indoors and in August because Central Park was still under renovation. DeBartola has criticized this renovation in the past. As usual, I did a survey of the vendors in the video below.
The vendors were mostly selling jewelry. There were also non-profit organizations there (this one included) raising awareness of their causes. There was also a drag show and performers with fire (photo above).
Speakers included Democratic Congressional candidate Beth Farnham.
The turnout for the festival was about the same as in previous years. It may have seemed smaller because the space where it was held was larger than Central Park. The 2026 Johnstown LGBTQ fest ran longer because it was indoors. In the previous post I spoke of how the Trump Administration excluded items related to LGBTQ issues from government surveys. These 2 posts are related.