The Jax River City Pride Festival and Parade will be celebrated on Saturday and Sunday in the Riverside neighborhood.
On Saturday, the Big Gay Picnic in Willowbranch Park and the Pride Celebration at Riverside Arts Market brought together members of the LGBTQ+ community and their allies to celebrate as Pride Month came to a close.
Local advocate Richard Ceriello has watched Jacksonville change greatly over the years when it comes to LGBTQ+ acceptance -- dating all the way back to the city's first Pride Celebration in Willowbranch Park 47 years ago.
Next weekend, the annual “Big Gay Picnic” returns to Willowbranch Park in Riverside. The family and pet-friendly event, hosted by the Jacksonville LGBT Chamber of Commerce and the AIDS Memorial Project AMP, celebrates community and inclusivity.
A small group of Riverside residents got into the thick of things at Willowbranch Park to move out some debris left behind by the storm.
Jacksonville’s Pride Parade will be held at 2 p.m. on Sunday and will feature dozens of floats that will weave through Riverside and 5 Points.
A man was found dead Saturday morning on Sydney Street by Willowbranch Park in the Riverside neighborhood, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said.
Library spokesman Chris Boivin said a white box with unusual writing on it was found on top of the book drop of the Willowbranch Library in Riverside. Given heightened tensions at the library this week after the cancellation of a controversial LGBTQ event, administrators called police. Just after noon, a technician in a bomb suit inspected the package and found it contained an audio book reader that was being returned to the library, Boivin said. The Willowbranch Library has been in the news this week after an LGBTQ prom for teenagers planned to be held there Friday was abruptly canceled. The suspicious item/police activity at Willowbranch Library has been determined to be nothing of hazard, criminal, or wrongdoing.
