Phoenix Pride won a delay in its Chapter 11 case, pushing to December the hearing where the court is expected to take up its reorganization plan, 12News reported Oct. 9, citing new court filings. “This is a different kind of year for Phoenix Pride,” executive director Mike Fornelli said in a news release before the group’s 45th festival, KTAR reported.
The Phoenix Pride bankruptcy began in late May, when the group filed for Chapter 11 listing just over $432,000 owed to three creditors, and it has kept operating since. “Phoenix Pride is still here. We’re still supporting our community. We’re still operating,” board president Daniel Eckstrom told Fox 10 in June.
Phoenix Pride Moved to Arizona Center and Still Drew Thousands
The festival left Steele Indian School Park for the Arizona Center downtown, and the old two-day format became a ticketed Saturday concert on Oct. 10 and a free-admission festival on Sunday, Oct. 11. “What we’re kind of doing here is hybridizing the Rainbows Festival that we produce at Heritage Square every year,” spokesperson Jeremy Helfgot told 12News.
Madison Rose was booked to headline the Saturday show, and Jordy was set to close Sunday night, KTAR reported. “This is a hybrid event, with free and open access to anyone who wants to attend,” Fornelli said in the release.
Thousands turned out for Sunday’s parade, which ran down Third Street and ended at the Arizona Center, ABC15 reported. “I get to see more youth out here because when I was their age, we were usually in the closet, scared to say who we were,” Alero Mills, a Phoenix Pride volunteer for 25 years, told the station.
Phoenix Pride Bankruptcy Debts: A $418,000 Claim and Lost Sponsors
Eckstrom told KJZZ’s The Show last December, as the station reported a $350,000 shortfall after the 2025 festival, that “we found that we had a dip in admissions, about a 38% loss, a 50% loss in our beverage sales.”
Sponsors got harder to keep, too. “Since the administration took office, we’ve seen a really sharp decline in a lot of our support, a lot of our sponsorship,” Eckstrom told Fox 10.
The biggest debt is a claim of about $418,000 from Pride Group LLC of Chandler, which sued in March, saying it’s been owed money since the October 2025 festival, Arizona’s Family reported. Attorney Howard Meyers told the station the filing froze that lawsuit. “It is automatically stayed,” he said.
Phoenix Pride listed assets of no more than $50,000 when it filed, according to court records cited by KJZZ. Brandon Slayton, a co-owner of the gay bar Stacy’s at Melrose, one of Phoenix Pride’s sponsors, told Fox 10 in June, “I think that there’s an opportunity for the community to come together and actually discuss some of the frustrations.” (Phoenix has company: San Diego Pride executive director KishaLynn Elliott is stepping down amid a six-figure deficit, and the Grand Rapids Pride Center is raising emergency money to stay open.)
What Phoenix Pride’s Chapter 11 Plan Could Mean for Creditors
Chapter 11 lets the nonprofit keep running while it works out a deal with creditors, and Meyers laid out the choices. “There’s two tools,” he told Arizona’s Family. “The first tool is to stretch out the payments over time. The second tool is to reduce the amount that is owed.”
News coverage of the case hasn’t spelled out what Phoenix Pride’s plan offers Pride Group or anyone else. Phoenix Pride said when it filed that “events, programs, partnerships, and community work will continue as we move through this process,” Axios reported.
Phoenix Pride told Fox 10 that its grant and scholarship funds are legally restricted and remain protected. “Pride is always going to be needed,” Eckstrom told KJZZ.
Phoenix Pride 2027 Parade Plans Are Already Posted
Tucson Pride, founded in 1977, announced in January it was shutting down after nearly 50 years, Axios reported. “With all those DEI cuts and those funding cuts, it’s a trickle-down effect, right?” Fornelli told Arizona’s Family that month. Phoenix Pride’s parade page already looks ahead: applications for the 2027 parade open in June 2027, with volunteer applications to follow in late summer.
