Afotimber The program of festivities was announced Wednesday, a year after an organizational fiasco saw the parade cancelled at the last minute.
Published Jul 26, 2023 • Last updated Jul 26, 2023 • 4 minute read
Montreal Pride executive director Simon Gamache, left, is joined onstage by drag queen Gisèle Lullaby and singer Joe Bocan at an event announcing this year’s festival lineup in Montreal on Wednesday, July 26, 2023. Photo by John Mahoney /Montreal Gazette Despite last year’s disastrous cancellation of Montreal’s Pride Parade just hours before it was set to begin, organizers say the 17th annual Pride Festival from Aug. 3 to 13 will be bigger, better organized and more diverse than ever.
More than 150 artists, a large proportion of whom are “emerging artists of colour,” and more than 140 community organizations — almost twice as many as last year — will participate in the festival.
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Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. “That’s a sign that the communities want to trust us,” Montreal Pride executive director Simon Gamache said at Wednesday’s launch at Fairmount The Queen Elizabeth hotel. “They could have rejected us after what happened last year. On the contrary, they said: ‘Actually, we want this to work. We want to be part of the solution.’”
The festival begins on Thursday, Aug. 3 at 5 p.m. with opening ceremonies featuring Indigenous artists and a dance party at Place Émilie-Gamelin. That site will also host multi-artist events Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Festival events will also take place at Le National, Club Soda and the SAT, among other venues in the Village. Community organizations will set up kiosks and hold events along Ste-Catherine St. E. in the Village on Friday, Aug. 11 and Saturday, Aug. 12.
The Olympic Park’s Esplanade will once again host the larger Pride shows beginning Aug. 9, with a DJ set from Barbada and performances by Édith Butler, Lumière, Coco Belliveau, Klô Pelgag, Joe Bocan and others. On Aug. 10, a Drag Superstars show will feature well-known artists from the RuPaul’s Drag Race franchise. On Aug. 11, the festival offers an Evening Celebrating QTBIPOC people (Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, People of Colour), featuring French singer/songwriter Aimé Simone, South African artist Nahkane Mya and others. The closing show after the parade on Aug. 13 will include a big dance party with DJ K.Nox, DJ TDon and DJ Kampire as well as a closing performance by Montreal-based queer artist RÊVE.
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Organizers and performers took the stage at a Montreal Pride event announcing this year’s lineup on Wednesday, July 26, 2023. Photo by John Mahoney /Montreal Gazette The parade is set to begin at 1 p.m. Aug. 13 along René-Lévesque Blvd. between Metcalfe and Alexandre-DeSève Sts. The organization has contracted 200 additional security agents and “welcome officials” to ensure the event goes off without a hitch.
According to an independent inquiry ordered by the city of Montreal after last year’s troubles, the root of the problem was poor communication among organizers and a failure to recruit a sufficient number of volunteers to ensure road closures.
Montreal Pride executive producer Mélanie Reeves said the organization has increased the number of people assigned to organize the parade. The main change is that volunteers will no longer be responsible for road closures. About 100 volunteers have been recruited to help with other aspects of the event, but there will be 200 paid welcoming officials and security guards looking after that aspect.
“Obviously, at Montreal Pride, volunteers are still welcome and what’s more, they are essential, but their role can’t compromise the proper functioning of the parade,” Reeves said.
Gamache said the organization behind what has become the largest pride celebration in the Francophonie had grown very quickly in recent years and its structure and governance had not kept pace.
Last year’s fiasco prompted an internal reorganization and more involvement by members of local LGBTQ2+ communities and organizations.
Gamache said he never considered resigning over the parade fiasco, nor did he consider firing anyone. He added he is proud of his team for getting through the crisis.
“When something like that happens, you have to look at yourself in the mirror and ask, ‘Was I the cause of this mistake?’ … If I had been the person that caused this, I would have resigned,” he said. “Actually, I would have been fired. But there was an inquiry, and that inquiry heard what actually happened, and it was much more complex.”
The city mandated former Société de transport de Montréal president Philippe Schnobb to head the investigation, and he spent 100 hours interviewing people to understand what happened.
“So, we know what happened,” Gamache said. “I spoke to the people (responsible), and those people feel absolutely horrible about what happened. But those people can be part of the solution.
“Pride Montreal is an inclusive organization. Stuff happens. And I am convinced we did the right thing by keeping them. They are in different positions. We have completely rebuilt the production department.”
Alia Hassan-Coursol, city councillor and special adviser to Mayor Valérie Plante, attended the launch to re-affirm the city’s confidence in Montreal Pride, congratulating Gamache and his team for making the necessary changes to ensure the festival goes smoothly.
She said the Pride festival is the “event of the summer” attracting a record number of people to the city and enhancing Montreal’s international reputation as an inclusive city.
“We are a city of rights, a city of inclusion, a city where there is, yes, still a lot of work to do, where there is still a lot of discrimination, systemic racism, inequality … (but) Montreal is a city for all.”
As it does each year, Montreal Pride used the opportunity of the festival launch to draw attention to a list of demands from LGBTQ2+ communities to governments and society at large. The demands are all the more urgent, Gamache said, in light of “a social context where the amount of hate speech targeted toward (our) communities is increasing.”
The list includes: adequate funding and space for LGBTQ2+ community organizations, public recognition of systemic racism and commitments to fight discrimination, free gender-affirming surgeries and care, a ban on non-consensual surgical interventions on intersex people, and funding for sex-positive sex education, among others.
mlalonde@postmedia.com
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