{"id":136924,"date":"2026-01-29T23:31:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T23:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/136924\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T23:31:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T23:31:07","slug":"pride-cape-coral-changes-location-for-2026-parade-due-to-cost-and-security-lee-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/136924\/","title":{"rendered":"Pride Cape Coral changes location for 2026 parade due to cost and security | Lee County"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>CAPE CORAL, Fla. &#8211; Pride Cape Coral, a cherished celebration of love and acceptance, is changing locations for its 2026 parade and festival.<\/p>\n<p>The event, traditionally held on SE 47th Terrace, will now take place on Lafayette Street in Cape Coral.<\/p>\n<p>Security and finances are the primary reasons for the change, according to Pride Cape Coral organizers. They aim to ensure the event is as secure and safe as possible.<\/p>\n<p>This year&#8217;s festival will be a gated, ticketed event with metal detectors. The entry point will be behind Nice Guys Pizza. However, the parade will remain free and open to the public at its new location.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Pride is nothing short of amazing,&#8221; said Melissa Moore, a board member for Pride Cape Coral. &#8220;It just gives you all the warm, fuzzy feelings. It&#8217;s nothing but positivity and love and acceptance.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Moore explained that the decision to move the event was financially driven, emphasizing the importance of security at large-scale events.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It really all comes down to finances,&#8221; said Moore. &#8220;Security is number one.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In previous years, a grant helped offset costs, but they did not receive it this year, impacting their plans.<\/p>\n<p>Moore praised the City of Cape Coral for enhancing security efforts for events in the area, highlighting the importance of safety.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The City of Cape Coral has increased their efforts to keeping any event in this area secured, which is really great,&#8221; said Moore. &#8220;Safety is number one in any large event.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Despite the location change, the festival&#8217;s core mission of celebrating love and acceptance remains unchanged.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re super excited. Obviously, change is scary, but we&#8217;re excited, and we think that it&#8217;s going to make the event all the more better,&#8221; said Moore.<\/p>\n<p>Pride Cape Coral&#8217;s festival is scheduled for March 7, running from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m., with the parade kicking off at 4 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CAPE CORAL, Fla. &#8211; Pride Cape Coral, a cherished celebration of love and acceptance, is changing locations for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136784,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,3837,325],"class_list":{"0":"post-136924","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cape-coral","8":"tag-cape-coral","9":"tag-cape-coral-headlines","10":"tag-cape-coral-news","11":"tag-collaborator_gen_stories","12":"tag-lee"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}