Vancouver Pride Society says parade will happen next month, despite financial challenges

Vancouver’s Pride parade will go ahead as planned over the August long weekend – with a new and slightly shorter route.

Vancouver’s Pride parade will go ahead as planned next month despite significant financial challenges.

Organizers argue the city could be doing more to support what is one of its biggest annual events, often attracting crowds in the range of 100,000.

“The City of Vancouver gives a permit and the permit fee includes policing – and that number is going up,” Vancouver Pride Society secretary Morgane Oger told CTV News on Thursday.

“It’s very expensive to be able to be allowed to run a Pride event. Security and co-ordination is hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars. It’s really getting expensive.”

Oger says corporate sponsorship has dropped, resulting in a loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars in financial support to help the event go ahead.

“We’ve seen a drop of roughly 50 per cent of corporate sponsorship. It’s been related to the increasing of polarization in politics, I think,” Oger said, referencing events in the U.S. and other provinces, while also acknowledging the economic challenges many businesses are facing right now.

“We are entering a phase that’s a little harder, right? Businesses are not thinking about largesse right now. They’re thinking about just getting through the year.”

Oger wants the city to do more to support the event, saying Vancouver Pride has been denied some City of Vancouver grants.

Vancouver city Coun. Peter Meiszner disputes that there’s been a drop off of city funding, but says he is working with event organizers to help them apply for a cultural grant.

“I’m part of the (2SLGBTQ+) community,” Meiszner told CTV News in an interview on Thursday.

“It’s really important to me and also what the parade and festival stand for in terms of equity and diversity in our city.”

The City of Vancouver sent a statement to CTV News saying that Pride has received $75,000 in “FestShare” in-kind support to offset city operational expenses for this year’s event, in addition to a $7,500 grant, noting the event received similar funding last year.

The city added it has provided $99,700 across nine grants to the Vancouver Pride Society since 2020.

Beyond the discussion over funding, this year will see a change in the direction in the parade, which will travel east to west, finishing near Davie village.

It comes after criticism over the previous west to east route, which meant the party wasn’t as close to the West End.

“There was feedback in the community that it was moving too far away from places that were core to our identities,” Oger said, referencing the West End’s history at the city’s first large-scale LGBTQ+ neighbourhood.

Given Pride’s challenges, the society plans to hold a series of roundtables and town halls in the fall, with the goal of creating a sustainable future for the organization.