Nanaimo's Pride Week is fast approaching, with an array of activities for community members ranging from an all-ages silent disco to the anticipated parade.
Events run throughout the week from Monday to Sunday, June 2-8.
"This year our pride theme is 'Louder and Prouder.' We are showing up in a big way with community members and allies coming together to celebrate a whole week of pride in Nanaimo," said Lauren Semple, Nanaimo Pride's president. "We have done some pretty epic events during Pride Week before, so I think folks can look forward to some of our flagship events returning."
Aside from returning popular past events, like the comedy show, dance and parade, community members can expect new activities with Drag Race Trivia and an all-ages silent disco at Neck Point Park.
Semple said the 'Rainbow Rave' silent disco was brought forward by a board member who wanted a different sensory experience than what Pride typically offers, and something that can be enjoyed by family members of all ages. To make it happen, they partnered with Collective Groove, which organizes other silent discos in Nanaimo.
During the event, attendees will be given headphones playing the disco's music. People are invited to dance, sit, take breaks and leave and return as they wish.
"Everyone gets to tune in to their own channels and control what music they're hearing and control the volume of that music or take their headset off completely and take a break," Semple said. "It's going to be a really fun family environment where we get to spend a couple hours together dancing as the sun goes down."
The other new event, Drag Race Trivia, is in partnership with Andrew Roberts's Got Pop Productions, which has worked with Nanaimo Pride on their annual Pride Week comedy show.
"As we have grown [the comedy show] and we've moved it to the conference centre we wanted to engage Andrew again to help us bring a new event into Pride Week. He has done those Drag Race Trivias outside of Pride Month before, and our community really loved them."
Another change people can expect is the Pride parade, which is expected be bigger than ever before. The parade will start at the corner of Fitzwilliam and Selby Street,in the Old City Quarter, going across Bastion Street Bridge, Front Street and ending at Maffeo Sutton Park, where the festival begins.
"We've worked with the city's engineering department to come up with a new route that avoided the highway crossing, it allowed the parade to flow a bit better and just provided some safer management of the parade as we've got so many people involved and thousands watching," Semple explained.
As a result of the shift, organizers were able to accommodate more entries, 58 as of press time, whereas last year's parade had 40 entries.
"So it's going to be an amazing parade, it's going to be, I think, one of the most impressive ones yet."
More information and links to purchase tickets to events can be found at http://nanaimopride.ca/pride-guide. The guide includes mobility and transit information, parking, supports as well as sensory notes and descriptions of the events.
WHAT'S ON:
Drag Race Trivia happens June 2 at the Queen's Hotel, all-ages event, doors open at 6 p.m.
Flag-raising ceremony on June 3 at 5 p.m. at Nanaimo City Hall.
Rainbow Rave silent disco will be held June 4 from 7-10 p.m. at Neck Point Park. All-ages.
Laugh Out Loud comedy June 5 at the Vancouver Island Conference Centre. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. 19-plus event.
Club Soda sober Pride party June 6 from 7-11 p.m. at the Pleasant Valley Social Centre. 18-plus event.
Pride dance June 7 at 7:30 p.m. at the Vancouver Island Conference Centre. 19-plus event.
Pride parade on Fitzwilliam, Bastion and Front streets June 8 at 11 a.m., followed by the Pride festival at Maffeo Sutton Park from noon-5 p.m.
