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The Queen City Pride Festival, which kicked off on June 6, features its 36th annual Pride Parade on Saturday.
Starting at noon, the parade will begin on Broad Street, turn onto College Avenue and head down Albert Street before ending in Wascana Park.
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But anyone navigating Regina’s downtown construction projects recently will know the challenges presented to pedestrians, vehicles, and parade floats.
Queen City Pride co-chair Riviera Bonneau said the organization started working alongside the City of Regina in January to mitigate impacts on the parade route.
“They were able to shimmy some barricades and do some fancy work so that we can keep our parade, and hopefully it can still be accessible to everybody while not completely ruining the lives of people … in the city of Regina,” Bonneau said.
The City of Regina will begin barricading the parade route starting Saturday morning at 6 a.m.
The parade will affect vehicle traffic flow on 12th Avenue, Broad Street, College Avenue, Albert Street and Legislative Drive.
Post-parade celebrations include outdoor festival
With the parade ending in Wascana Park, participants can look forward to an outdoor festival complete with vendors, food trucks, local talent, and a beer garden.
Bonneau said there would be games and activities for all ages.
“It’s just a giant celebration of Pride,” Bonneau said.
Events for those 19 and older begin in the evening, starting with downtown’s Pride After Dark.
Bonneau said the ticketed event features Canadian drag sensations Lemon and Yovska, along with other queens from Saskatchewan and Alberta.
But, in a change from previous years, this event will end early to make way for something new.
It may come as a surprise that Queen City Pride and Q Nightclub and Lounge, Canada’s last privately-owned queer club, weren’t partners for previous festivals.
But that changes this year, as the nightclub will host the festival’s official “after after party,” Bonneau said, featuring DJs and new decorations.
The decision comes after years of the Queen City Pride organizers overextending themselves.
“We would try to hold Pride After Dark all the way up until like 2 or 3 a.m. and most of us have started at 7 a.m. that day, so we got exhausted,” Bonneau said.
Making safety a priority
While there’s a lot to look forward to for the roughly 6,000 to 8,000 people who attend Regina’s pride celebrations, Bonneau said safety is top of mind.
“There’s always, unfortunately, the concern with the rising ride of ignorance and hate,” said Bonneau.
To ensure everyone feels safe, Bonneau said there will be Regina Police Service officers at the parade, including those at every main intersection, along with plain clothes officers at the park and other security.
The tragedy at Vancouver’s Lapu Lapu Festival in April also had an impact.
“After that tragedy, we reiterated with everybody that we don’t want any gaps. We don’t want there to be any concerns. Everyone needs to feel safe when they’re with us,” Bonneau said.
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