Barrie Pride Week is celebrating its fifth anniversary, and organizers say they expect this year’s event to be bigger and better than ever.
This year, Barrie Pride has extended the celebration from a one-day festival to a three-day long event.
Co-chair at Barrie Pride, Shelly Skinner, says organizers expect 10,000 people will join in the celebration over the three-day period.
“We expect that this will be something that is going to continue to grow, and bring in lots of tourists, and is going to make Barrie a town that people are really going to start thinking about moving to, and visit over the next few years.”
The expansion is just one of many new endeavours for Barrie Pride. Skinner says over the last year, the organization began holding weekly events, social nights and fundraisers across the city. This was in response to overwhelming community need.
“There were a lot of comments and concerns from the community about not feeling like there were safe spaces to go, and they were reaching out to Barrie Pride to start putting on more events, so we started doing that. We’re really excited to see the growth of our community, our events are very very well attended and they continue to grow every year.”
Overall, Skinner says she has noticed a considerable change in the community. “We’re seeing a really big shift in our community of support and love for the rainbow community. So we’re really excited to see that things are starting to change.”
Skinner encourages those who have never attended a Pride event to make it out to Heritage Park this year to see what it is all about.
“I would ask that they come out to Barrie Pride and see how different we really are from Toronto. I think a lot of people hear about Pride and they automatically think it will be the same as Toronto. We are a very unique community here in Barrie, and we make sure that our Pride is very family friendly and exciting. We do something different, even different from every festival that is available. We put family first here.”
Skinner says for her, ensuring the festival remains family friendly is imperative. “Not only am I a queer individual and a person of colour, but I am also a mother of a queer daughter, and it’s been really imperative for our festival to be something that I can bring my children to, and that they not only just come to, but they volunteer at, they support, they tell all of their friends. So it’s something that we hope to continue to be a family-friendly and supported event,” she said.
This year’s festival features a free kids area with moon bounces and ice cream.
Skinner says Barrie Pride is also encouraging local businesses to participate and will be holding a window display contest to encourage pride spirit.
“Businesses can submit a photo of their Pride display to us and then we’re running a contest where the top five will be mentioned on our social media over Pride weekend, and then we’ll choose our top two as our winners and they will win a media package for getting involved,” she said.
Skinner says Barrie Pride is always looking for volunteers, and are still accepting vendors and businesses looking to participate. “It’s a three-day weekend so we’re going to need as many hands on deck as possible,” she said. Those looking to lend a hand can find more information here.
Pride Week will begin in the city June 3 and run until June 10. More information and a full schedule of events can be found on Barrie Pride’s website.
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