In just over a week, the Pride London Festival will kick off 10 days of celebrations and events.
This year marks the festival’s 44th year, beginning July 11 and wrapping up with the Pride Parade on July 21 at Victoria Park.
The festival gets started next Thursday with the Pride London Award Show at the Well, starting at 7 p.m. The show aims to highlight and recognize individuals and businesses that are improving London’s LGBTQ2 community.
New this year are two events centred on London’s transgender community. A trans market at Aeolian Hall on July 14 at 10 a.m. aims to allow Londoners to see the city’s transgender community members and business owners. Also, a new trans pride march will also be held on July 19 at Victoria Park, starting at 5:20 p.m.
Nick Veal, a volunteer coordinator with Pride London Festival, says the group wants to showcase London’s trans community.
“We want to be more inclusive the trans community here in London. They’re always welcome, and they’re definitely a great community along with the LGBTQ community in London,” Veal said.
“People can go and check out all these different transgender communities and businesses that came together.”
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Despite Pride month being over, Pride isn’t something that should be contained to one month, Veal added.
“It was one month, but we should definitely celebrate Pride every day and know that we’re always here for each other and the community.”
Some other highlights from the 10-day festival include a Pride run at 7 a.m. at Springbank Gardens on July 13, a Pride swim at the YMCA Centre Branch at 1 p.m. July 14, and the 33rd annual Pride art show at TAP Centre for Creativity from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. July 18.
The festival’s biggest events start on July 19, with the welcome address at Victoria Park at 6 p.m. Dozens of live artists are set to take the stage at Victoria Park all weekend, leading up to the 28th annual Pride London Parade.
More than 100 floats, performers and vendors are expected at this year’s Pride Parade, and the turnout is expected to be large.
“We’re expecting more than 3,000 people for the parade, we’re definitely looking for a lot of people this year,” Veal said.
The parade will begin at noon on Quebec Street, between Dufferin and Dundas streets, before heading to Victoria Park. No rain is forecast at the time of writing, but high temperatures are expected. Festival officials recommend wearing comfortable, light clothing and drinking lots of water.
A full list of events is available on the Pride London Festival website.