Digital Pride Festival launches Friday with A Night of Love and Kindness

June 11, 2020 · 0 Comments

York Pride’s Jacob Gal and Brianne Evelyn with YRP Constable Milad Baygan at a Pride event held in Newmarket this past February. Auroran photo by Glenn Rodger

A global pandemic isn’t going to stop organizers beyond the York Pride Festival from spreading love and acceptance.

The local organization, which has spearheaded a growing roster of family-friendly Pride activities for the past 20 years, was set for a big celebration this year to mark their milestone. Due to present restrictions surrounding COVID-19, however, those celebrations will be back and bigger than ever for 2021, but the countdown to next year’s party will kick off this week.

“We decided we would postpone our 20-year celebration to next year due to physical distancing components, and that includes the Pride Parade, the concert, community fair, art exhibitions and the list goes on,” says York Pride’s Jacob Gal.

This year, York Pride planned on spearheading more than 20 events, most of which were partnered or affiliated events, with four key signature events, including the previously planned parties at Riverwalk Commons. While they were only able to pull off one of these signature events before the pandemic hit – Skate with Pride in Georgina on Family Day – they decided to plan the balance on a month-to-month basis for the remainder of the year while uncertainty reigned.

“We were pretty much ready to not do anything and completely cancel everything until next year,” says Gal. “But we decided to do reduced programming and live streams every Wednesday and Friday from 7 – 8 p.m. EST. In that programming, we wanted to include a launch party, a closing party, a Pride Day celebration on June 20 planned with Main Street (Newmarket) businesses, and then we would do a Netflix party, a Zumba interactive night, and a Kahoot trivia night to mark our 20 years.”

The Launch Party will take place this Friday, June 12, coinciding with A Night for Love and Kindness.

“In 2016, the Pulse Nightclub massacre happened in Orlando, FL and that year they started a United Orlando Day for Love and Kindness,” explains Gal. “What we wanted to do was focus on youth – young minds, young hearts – and we wanted to start building a platform for them to have an open stage and encourage them to claim and create spaces that allow them to be themselves and feel comfortable with their spaces, and use this as an opportunity to remind people about what happened in Orlando and how hate can be a really deadly thing in our community.

“In the end, when educating, when creating spaces and platforms for people, ultimately love, acceptance and understanding can surpass hate and help create a more stable society.”

Partnering with the City of Orlando and the One Pulse Foundation, they are sharing a live-stream of the latter’s broadcast while bringing in a local emcee to host for a full hour of local and international content.

“One of the things we wanted to keep in mind was a part of being a growing organization, a small Pride that is trying to become bigger and more of a household name in York Region, we have to be constantly pushing to be engaging and interact with our residents in York Region,” says Gal. “We live in a Region with 1.2 million people and some very rural communities, so it can sometimes be extremely hard to reach people. Coming up with content and activities for people is important because the more we can continue to keep people engaged, the more connections we’ll be able to make in the long-run.

“At the end of the day, it is the fact we are limited by our budget. We have some amazing partners like Mike’s Music Machine, which is going to be doing the live stream with us. They have done our lighting and sound every year at Pride since 2015. It is important we support our suppliers who are LGBT. Mike has been through quite a lot in their life and we love the fact we can support somebody in our own community while they support us back. This gave us an opportunity to not only pay their company to run the live stream, but also gives us the chance to engage more queer artists and put a spotlight on LGBT talent.”

Following the Launch Party and A Night of Love & Kindness on June 12, additional events include Voguing for Vitality with an interactive Zumba experience hosted by Robert Halley, the Kahoot trivia contest on June 19, where three winners will receive prizes courtesy of Skip the Dishes, a Netflix party where people can chat and have fun while watching a film related to the 2SLGBTQ community, and a closing party on June 26, featuring live bands, drag queen performances, interactive hosts, and prizes courtesy of Starbucks.

For more, including a complete roster of events and how you can interact, visit yorkpridefest.ca or follow them on Facebook.

By Brock Weir