ORLANDO, Fla. – A major event for the LGBTQ community in Orlando won’t be happening this year as the organizers deal with challenges on several fronts.

The organizers for Gay Days announced Sunday that its annual event in Orlando is on pause for this year.

“Changes to our host hotel agreement, the loss of key sponsorship support, and broader challenges currently impacting LGBTQIA+ events nationwide made it impossible to deliver the experience our community deserves,” the organizers posted on Facebook.

However, organizers say the event is not over, just on pause.

Gay Days began in 1991 as a single-day gathering where people would wear red and go to Central Florida theme parks, particularly Disney World.

Over the next 35 years, the event evolved into a weeklong celebration with parties, concerts, theme park visits and special events drawing over 180,000 attendees in recent years.

However, recent laws and actions in Florida have jeopardized the state’s status as a friendly place for members of the LGBTQ+ community to visit, according to Human Rights Campaign.

[WATCH: Gay Days adjusts to Florida’s new LGBTQ+ legislation]

They include a law to criminalize transgender people from using the restroom that matches their gender identity (HB 1521), policies banning gender affirming care, or allowing health care providers to refuse a patient care based on religious or moral beliefs, and a law that revokes licenses from businesses that allow children at “sexually explicit” shows.

The Human Rights Campaign issued a travel advisory for Florida after those laws were signed in 2023.

However, Orlando itself received a 100% score on Human Rights Campaign’s Municipal Equality Index last year, showing how the city has remained a welcoming place for the LGBTQ+ community.,

ORLANDO, Fla. – Do you remember the reason you moved out to Central Florida? Or perhaps if you’re a native Floridian, why it is you choose to keep your tent pitched in town?

I’d imagine there’s a nugget or two in there about the weather. The tropical-style atmosphere almost year round, yeah?

We’re finally going to see a return to form, and a lovely departure from these wintry weather conditions we had to endure since the end of January and the start of February.

Your Super Bowl Sunday was characterized by mostly clear skies, a nice calming breeze, and lovely afternoon high’s in the upper 60s and low 70s.

The rest of the night should be calm and mild as well, with cozy temperatures to end the weekend on a positive note in the weather department.

This will be the rhythm we carryover into your new work and school week tomorrow morning. We may have some patchy but dense fog build up during the very early morning hours and maybe create some spotty delays in our morning commute tomorrow.

High pressure settling in directly overhead is going to trap what residual moisture we have present across town down closest to us at ground level. Computer models are pretty sold especially our east coastal counties may wake up to some clouds down on the ground itself!

That quickly burns off to welcome a pretty solid Florida afternoon. Partly cloudy skies, light and variable winds especially the further inland you go, and no risk of any weather related impacts or delays as you end the first day back to work.

I will advise, as the beach comes back as an option for your free time, be leery as you try to set foot in the water. Our coastal winds continue to provide us with a HIGH rip current risk for all our Atlantic coast counties: Flagler, Volusia, and Brevard.

But nevertheless, enjoy! I know a lot of us were counting down to the cold weather relief and we’re finally smack dab in the middle of it.

We’ll stay in the mid to upper 70s all week with a few of us actually seeing 80 on your thermometer during the mid-afternoon hours.

You’ll want to carry a light jacket or a hoodie with you as you head out in the morning but by the afternoon it will be warm enough for your classic tee and shorts combo.

Get outdoors and enjoy some exercise or take a nice walk with the dog and the rest of the family.

All-in-all, we should see little issue with your weather throughout the week ahead. By Friday, Valentines Day on Saturday, and then race day on Sunday that’s when things could get a little more interesting for the Sunshine state.

Computer models are starting to zero in on a coastal low pressure to develop over the Gulf coast states, associated with a breakaway piece of the lower latitude jet stream. This could spin up into a major weather player for Daytona 500 attendees on Sunday.

Your weather team here at News 6 will continue monitoring trends and updating your forecast as we move through your upcoming week. I would highly encourage you have those talks behind the scenes with those you may be attending with to discuss potential wet weather back up plans.

For more than 80 years, the Shell Factory in North Fort Myers was a popular Florida attraction. It closed at the end of September 2024.

Established in 1938, in Bonita Springs by Harold and Mildred Krantz, it started as a small shell and seashell craft store. Following a fire in 1953, the business moved to its final location on North Cleveland Avenue in North Fort Myers.

In 1997, Pam and Tom Cronin purchased and expanded the Shell Factory to include a 4.5-acre nature park, large gift shops and amusement rides.

Shell Factory, North Fort Myers, Florida, sells to developer

A nearly century-old tourist attraction in North Fort Myers, Florida, was sold for $3.925 million Jan. 15, 2026.

“When we first purchased it, it was very, very rundown,” Cronin told The News-Press in 2016. “Half of the 34 air conditioners didn’t work. And we had to replace all the ceiling tiles. The roof was leaking.”

Cronin and his wife, Pam, poured millions of dollars into the place, giving it new life with a dazzlement of restaurants, rides, shops, arcades and exotic animals. The strategy paid off, with more than 500,000 visitors annually and a streak of double-digit growth years.

Cronin’s father, the late Thomas E. Cronin, bought another old landmark in 1947: The Royal Palm Hotel. Long-since razed, the grand riverfront hotel was Fort Myers’ first tourist attraction, hosting scores of well-heeled winter visitors.

The Shell Factory site is noted for having held the title of the world’s largest shell retailer and for featuring a significant taxidermy collection. It was a staple of local tourism and despite surviving hurricanes and economic downturns, closed after its owners could no longer support the costs of the aging property.

Following the closure, 400 animals, birds, reptiles and fish, were rehoused in locations in Florida, Alabama and Michigan. 

Sources: “Shell Factory closing” published Sept. 17, 2024, and “Grand Irish wake to send Tommy Cronin off in fine style planned at his beloved Shell Factory” by Amy Bennett Williams, Feb. 16, 2018.