The 15th annual St. Pete Pride Festival may have been the biggest one yet.
  • St. Pete pride organizers say about 30,000 were in attendance for Saturday's parade
  • Several business vendors participated in festival 
  • For first time, Pride weekend took place in downtown St. Petersburg
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The festival was sold out to vendors nearly a month ago. On Friday morning, more than 150 shops and food vendors lined the Grand Central District with color.

It's billed as the largest community event of the season and held up to that expectation. Event organizers estimate that 30,000 people made their way to Central Avenue on Saturday during the parade.
 
Last year's event hosted about 220,000 for the entire weekend with an estimated economic impact of about $22 million.

"I think everybody's got a right to be happy being themselves and they should be able to express themselves," said attendee Michelle Mobley.

The businesses at the festival were not solely local, with some coming in from across the state just for the weekend's events.

Stacy Wallace and her shop Mingo Mania made the trip from Tallahassee with her colorful flamingos and shirts with their "Be Kind" mantra printed on them.

"Just the amount of people who come here and have such a great time," Wallace said was the reason she made the trip.

The festival was also a time for members of the LGBTQ community to celebrate and show their pride.

Joe Muhrlin was at the corner of Central Ave and 24th St. offering free hugs.

"All the love and caring that everybody has for us. Every year it becomes more! It started out with me being here a couple of years ago, now there's almost 40 people here giving out hugs just because they want to come and share the love," he said.