After month’s delay, resilient Halifax Pride Festival gets underway

Halifax Pride 2021 has officially kicked off, with the annual Pride flag-raising ceremony and a large, colourful crowd down at the Halifax Grand Parade.

After being delayed by a month for public health reasons, the Halifax Pride Festival is ready to celebrate with a full schedule of in-person events that will allow the community to gather safely.

“We knew that we needed to delay just a little bit to ensure that we had a really thorough understanding of what was possible during the festival,” said Adam Reid, Halifax Pride executive director.

Halifax Pride will run from Aug. 12 to 22 and feature more than 50 in-person events at the Garrison Grounds with live performances, including music and comedy shows, drag shows, bingo and yoga and other active living events.

“This is about coming together as a community and recognizing the challenges we’ve faced over the past year and we can find strength in each other,” said Reid.

This year’s Pride slogan is “Radiate resilience” which speaks to the challenges of the pandemic and the impacts that it has had on the LGBTQ2 community, which Reid said was further impacted by COVID-19 isolation and lockdown measures.

“We know that the 2SLGBTQ+ community has been particularly impacted by the pandemic,” said Reid.

“Mental health concerns, employment concerns, housing concerns, have all been particularly challenging for the queer community and so we know that this festival is an opportunity for folks to gather, it’s a great mental health support and its great for social support and so we wanted to make sure we could host a really robust festival.”

There will be no Halifax Pride parade this year, as public health measures won’t allow it, but Reid said the festival is much more than just a parade and there’s something for everyone, as the festival is all-inclusive and committed to encouraging safe spaces for all.

The festival site at the Garrison Grounds has capacity for 5,000 people, but the festival will cap its daily admissions at 500 people to allow for greater social distancing, said Reid, adding they’ve been working closely with public health to make sure people can come together and celebrate safely.

“People will be able to social distance, we have low capacity on site,” said Reid. “Masks of course are encouraged and welcomed.”

Halifax Pride is taking place outside and so festival-goers aren’t required to wear masks outside on the Garrison Grounds, said Reid, but masking is something they do encourage.

There will be a COVID-19 rapid testing site at the festival.

For a list of events visit the Halifax Pride website.