There will be dancing in the streets, beer gardens, a drag queen show and a family-friendly kid zone at the fifth annual New West Pride festival.
The festival, which has been extended this year, runs nine days from August 8 to 16, and will include 20 unique events.
The festivities kick off with the Stonewall Dance on the first day and wind up with the Columbia Street Party, right outside the Columbia SkyTrain station.
This is the first year the main street party events will be downtown rather than at Tipperary Park.
The hope is extending the length of the festival and moving onto Columbia Street will allow for more people to enjoy the events, according to vice-president of the New West Pride, Jeremy Perry.
Perry said this year, organizers planned the festival to reach a younger audience in particular that might not have come in previous years. With a younger demographic in mind, in addition to three beer gardens, there will be food trucks, buskers and Uptown Live with three stages presenting musical acts, including Vancouver’s popular pop band, Bestie and blues-rap influenced Ash Grunwald from Australia.
“We are trying to aim it at everybody,” Perry said.
Many of the daily events planned for the festival this year are things that happen quite regularly in the city.
“Instead of being these one-off things that are just happening because it is Pride week, we are actually taking the opportunity to showcase what New West offers,” said Perry.
He said many from the lesbian, gay and transgender community may be surprised how many regular events the city has underway.
The drag show at The Heritage Grill, for example, is something that happens every Sunday night and the Vancouver Gaymers (“Board Game Warriors”) meets monthly, but for Pride these events are highlighted.
Given the expanded list of events and the change of location, Perry said he hopes to see 10,000 to 20,000 people out enjoying the festivities this year.
He figures there were between 2,000 and 3,000 at the event last year.
Royal City Pride Society founder Vance McFadyen said the festival has come a long way from the first year it ran, in 2010, when there were six rainy days of events and about 300 to 400 people in attendance.
“Since then it has grown considerably,” said McFadyen.
McFadyen, who has lived in the Royal City since 1961, said the broadening festival mirrors changes in the city itself.
“You didn’t even recognize the fact there were any [LGBT] in the ‘60s and ‘70s and even in the ‘80s,” he said.
“I think [the festival] is fabulous. I think it is a really good way to show the diversity of New Westminster, which I believe is a very diverse city and a very welcoming city.”
For more information on events go to www.newwestpride.ca.
