Flourish at Pride: Organizers make final preparations ahead of Halifax Pride Festival

Dozens of events are on tap for the ten-day celebration of Halifax Pride.

The theme of this year’s Halifax Pride Festival is “Flourish at Pride” and with dozens of events on tap, the festival is flourishing across Halifax.

“We’ve got close to 35 events that we’re hosting, and then we have another 100 to 150 community events, so there’s really something for everybody,” said Halifax Pride executive director Fiona Kerr.

The Halifax Pride Parade takes place Saturday at noon. The parade will begin on Cogswell Street and loop down to Barrington Street before ending at the Garrison Grounds.

Tens of thousands of people from the Halifax region and across Nova Scotia will take part in the more than week-long festival. It also draws in people from other areas.

“We estimate I think around 10,000 to 20,000 people travel from outside of Nova Scotia to come to our event,” said Kerr. “Folks specifically from New Brunswick and P.E.I. usually try to make their way here for this and we’re happy to have them.”

Halifax Pride welcomes people from all backgrounds, said Kerr.

“As politics and the political climate are changing, it’s more important than ever for allies to show up and support us,” she said. “We really encourage folks who maybe don’t belong to the community to come, see what we do, support our events, support local artists, put money in their pockets.”

She said putting together the festival is no small feat.

“It’s pretty intense. It’s pretty crazy. We spend more than a year planning each festival, so next year’s festival is already kind of underway.”

Pressing buttons for pride

Ahead of Saturday’s parade, the Downtown Dartmouth Business Commission held a Pride button-making workshop in partnership with the MacPhee Centre for Creative Learning.

“Button-making is really fun,” said Daria Fantaci, a program manager with MacPhee Centre. “We have some premade cut up designs all ready for folks where they can choose something that feels more a part of their community or they can also design something themselves that shows them to use their creativity to find something to accessorize themselves for the parade.”

The Downtown Dartmouth Business Commission said they felt it was important to host an event during Pride.

“We figured we should bring something down into Dartmouth for Dartmouth residents who want to feel like they can access Pride events and be welcomed and proud of who they are in their space,” said business commission summer student Ben Beaumont. Halifax Pride runs until July 27.

For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page