Regina’s Queen City Pride Festival has kicked off and in its 28 year will be the largest in the city’s history.
This year organizers say they expect the parade to be the largest Regina has ever seen.
The parade expects to draw nearly 3,000 people including almost 1,500 participants in the parade. One of the organizers, Dan Shier, said in 2012 the parade had around 500 people in it.
The growth in the parade and the festival came full circle in 2012. Organizers feared losing the parade, and the community helped kick the festival into high gear.
One thing organizers did differently this year was creating an event hosting bursary which helped support new and improved events.
Some things that have turned out of the new bursary program has been a few educational events including workshops about hepatitis C and AIDS. Also coming from the bursary is the Broadway musical production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch.
Organizers also created a youth prom this year and they say it had everyone excited.
“It was great to provide them with a high school dance or prom space and atmosphere that was a lot different than what you would have in a high school, it was come as you are, be who you want to be and dance how you want to dance,” said Pride Festival co-chair Dan Shier.
Another reason for the pride festival’s success is the support they receive from the City of Regina which is vital with them being where they are today.
“It took a while to officially get funding from the city, but now we have a really great relationship with city officials whose jobs are to work with our community and kind of be ears for our concerns,” Shier added.
With the growth of the festival getting so large, organizers are hoping that they can add a full-time body to the mix to try and help keep things running smoothly.
“We are looking for funding for an executive director or a paid staff member because we are getting to the point where running off of volunteer power isn’t enough anymore.”
This year the festival expects to see anywhere from 6,000 to 8,000 people attended the events that will be hosted.
If you would like to watch the pride parade on July 17, below is the parade route: