As Prattville Pride prepares for their second annual festival this weekend, organizers expressed their disappointment that the event won’t actually take place inside Prattville city limits.

After attempting to reach out to city officials to set up the event this year, Prattville Pride Vice President Caryl Lawson said the group was left scrambling to book another nearby venue.

“Last year in May before our big event, the city mentioned they were planning to implement a new green space rental agreement the next year,” Lawson told AL.com.

“After our successful inaugural event in June 2024, I emailed all five city officials we’d coordinated with and recapped the event and highlighted the positive feedback we’d gotten from vendors and outreach organizations like the ACLU as well as the GLAAD award we received and the feature on Good Morning America.”

Lawson said she asked the city officials to “please give us feedback on the event and let us know how they felt about it and if there was anything they’d like us to do differently the next year.”

“I also mentioned we’d start planning earlier in 2025 and to please let us know when the new green space rental agreement was finalized,” she added.

Lawson says she never received a response to that email, and when Prattville Pride started planning for this year’s event in February, they were told the agreement wasn’t ready yet.

“By April it still wasn’t ready, and we had no choice but to secure an alternate venue at a cost of $2500 (compared to $100 for the city park) so we could begin promoting our event,” she said.

Kellie Carter, Prattville’s parks and recreation director told AL.com Friday that that there is still no green space rental agreement currently in place for Prattville’s parks.

“We are working on one, reviewing what other cities do and submitting a final plan to our city attorney to make sure we don’t miss anything,” she wrote in an email.

“We do not rent out full parks, only pavilions in the parks, as our parks are always open to the public.”

She added that Cooters Pond, which Prattville Pride did try to book for June 1, had already been booked when they asked.

“They [city parks] rent quickly because it is $25 for the 4-hour periods, and with Cooters Pond being the only one allowed for more than 50 guests, that one fills up fast,” she wrote.

But Prattville Pride representatives recently told Alabama Political Reporter they received an anonymous tip that there had been a coordinated effort to reserve the park on every June weekend.

Carter did not comment on this claim.

She said Prattville Pride previously decided to book Cooters Pond for May 31 instead of June 1 but ended up transferring the reservation to Overlook Park last month for an outdoor picnic.

“THEY made the decision to cancel their event at Cooters Pond, they were never told they could not use the park,” Carter’s email read.

The Prattville Pride fest is now taking place from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Evans Park and Pavilion off U.S. Highway 31 near Maxwell Air Force Base, according to its Facebook page.

Last year, Lawson said that “Prattville Police Department and parks and rec were professional and thorough during the planning process” for their event.

But “by ignoring our email asking for feedback…and not being proactive in having the required green space rental agreement in place after having a year to prepare it, we can’t help but feel a bit unwelcome,” she said.

And this is not the first time the group has run into issues with the city.

In December, a federal judge ordered the group’s float to be included in Prattville’s Christmas Parade after Mayor Bill Gillespie pulled the float, saying the city “will not put the rights of parade participants ahead of the safety of its citizens,” according to the Elmore Autauga News.

In their complaint Lawson and fellow organizer Adam Hunt said Gillespie was “bowing to the pressure from extremists and hecklers in the community who oppose the views of Prattville Pride.”

“We have done everything in our power to forge a positive relationship with the city of Prattville,” Lawson said this week.

“We understand they are also being faced with anti LGBTQ+ emails and phone calls about us but giving in to that hate only emboldens those who wish to push us back into the shadows.”

“Prattville has a vibrant and diverse LGBTQ+ community, and we will not stop fighting to provide representation and safe spaces for those who so desperately need them.”