Pride Toronto weekend begins, parade to take place on Sunday

Pride weekend in Toronto begins Friday and will include a full calendar of events, with the much-anticipated Pride parade taking place on Sunday.

Kicking off the weekend of festivities for the LGBTQ2 community will be the Trans March rally.

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The Trans March will begin at 7 p.m. Friday, starting at the Pride Festival Street, North Stage, near Church and Isabella streets before ending at Allan Gardens.

The march is expected to take about one hour.

Toronto police said there will be a rolling road closure to the route and that motorists should expect delays.

The Pride parade on Sunday will start at 2 p.m. at the corner of Church and Bloor streets. The parade will then make its way across Bloor Street and south down Yonge Street before winding up at Yonge-Dundas Square.

Pride said the “colourful event will welcome performances, floats and thousands of marchers, making it one of the largest of its kind in North America.”

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Toronto police said rolling road closures for the Pride parade will begin at 8 a.m. Sunday on Rosedale Valley Road, between Park Road to Bayview Avenue, as the parade will start forming up there.

At noon, Park Road will be closed from Rosedale Valley Road to Bloor Street East, Church Street will be closed from Park Road to Hayden Street and Bloor Street East will be closed from Yonge Street to Ted Rogers Way.

At 1 p.m., Bloor Street will be closed from Bay Street to Ted Rogers Way, Yonge Street will be closed from Bloor to Queen streets, Dundas Street will be closed from Bay to Church streets and Victoria Street will be closed from Dundas to Shuter streets.

Police said the roads are expected to be closed until about 7 p.m. Sunday.

The TTC’s Dundas Street streetcar route will also be out of service.

On Saturday, the annual Pride and Remembrance Run will take place at 10 a.m. Toronto police said road closures along route will be in effect between 6:30 a.m. and noon.

The run/walk course starts at Church and Wellesley streets and loops around Queen’s Park Circle. There are two options for the race, the 5 kilometre run loops around twice and the 3 kilometre walk only loops around once.

The run will finish eastbound along Wellesley Street. The race is currently sold out according to the Pride run TO website.

The Dyke March will begin at 2 p.m., on Saturday, following the same route as the Trans March the previous day. The Dyke March will start at the Pride Festival Street, North Stage and make its way through the downtown core to end at Allan Gardens.

Following the Dyke March, the Drag Ball will be held at the TD Main Stage from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Pride organizers also said a Family Pride will take place on both Saturday and Sunday at the Church Street Public School from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

“This will be the perfect occasion to celebrate LGBTQ families, with the event offering an exciting program of activities and events catered to tweens and teens!” said Pride Toronto in a news release.

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