Good fortune smiles on Pride festivities

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This article was published 14/06/2015 (3828 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Parking lots were jam-packed at The Forks on Saturday, giving Pride Winnipeg Festival organizers the satisfaction of a lot of foot traffic out of FIFA fans.

Dozens of concessions advertised everything from hotdogs and hamburgers to local artisanal crafts. They were crowded throughout the afternoon.

Best of all, by 4 p.m., a couple of hours before the event was due to wrap up, the skies still hadn’t opened up, despite the forecast for showers and likely a thunderstorm. Hours earlier, runners took part in the festival’s first-ever five-kilometre Pride Run, which started and ended at Stephen Juba Park.

The Scotiabank Stage was adorned with a multicoloured rainbow, but the action was on the other side of the rainbow, where a cosy audience sat in sheltered comfort with free coffee and snacks. The stage offered a concert of poetry reading, comedy monologues and music.

 

The festival included an exhibit on the Pride Winnipeg Festival 2015 theme — the recent evolution of LGBTTQ civil rights.

The exhibit, displayed at The Forks, traces the progress of North American gay rights back to the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City and the decriminalization of homosexual acts in Canada the same year.

The Scotiabank Stage setting was sheltered from the wind, and while the crowds at the concessions couldn’t see the performers behind the rainbow, they could certainly hear them. Speakers carried the music out to the crowds far beyond the stage.

“It’s been great. Definitely a bigger turnout than last year,” said Jonathan Niemczak, president of Pride Winnipeg. “I know we can attribute a lot of that to our out-of-town guests. There are a lot of Americans here. And there’s been a lot of walk-throughs, a lot of foot traffic.”

‘It’s been great. Definitely a bigger turnout than last year’ — Pride Winnipeg president Jonathan Niemczak

Performer Mariana Ca±adas said she’s attended a few festivals before, but never to sing, as she did Saturday.

“You know, just coming to this, people are celebrating just ‘being.’ That’s probably the best thing about it,” she said.

Last year, the Pride Winnipeg Festival drew 35,000 people. This year, it will probably be between 37,000 to 38,000, Niemczak said.

There was no question thousands of people packed The Forks with Winnipeg being one of the Canadian cities hosting the FIFA Women’s World Cup.

Licence plates revealed the interest of Americans, with parked cars displaying plates from Virginia and Minnesota among the Manitoba vehicles.

The Pride Winnipeg Festival kicked off June 5 and ends today. A rally is slated for the legislature grounds at 11 a.m. At noon, a parade will wind through downtown.

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca