The Victoria Pride Society (VPS) is happy to announce the 2021 Victoria Pride Week Festival from June 28 to July 4, 2021. The pageant will embrace on-line occasions to securely rejoice our native LGBTQ2S+ communities and achievements, join individuals and advocate for change by an intersectional lens.
“While COVID-19 will forestall our traditional in-person occasions this 12 months, Pride can’t be cancelled,” mentioned VPS President David Tillson. “These occasions will showcase and rejoice our group, whereas highlighting the work that also must be achieved to beat racism, transphobia, homophobia and all different types of discrimination.”
The Victoria Pride Week Festival will current six free occasions, together with digital diversifications of long-standing, in-person occasions just like the Parade, Youth Pride Kick-Off Party, Pride within the Word and Big Gay Dog Walk, in addition to new occasions like Queer Activism Night.
The Victoria Pride Week Festival will embrace quite a lot of alternatives for the group to be seen, have interaction and rejoice.
About the Victoria Pride Week Festival
Presented by the Victoria Pride Society, the Victoria Pride Week Festival offers alternatives for native LGBTQIA2S+ communities to be seen, to rejoice, to advocate and to really feel related to group.
Pride has taken many types in Victoria through the years, beginning with the primary “Pride Weeks” within the early Nineteen Eighties and group picnics in Beacon Hill Park within the early Nineteen Nineties. The first Pride Parade was in 1994 and the primary pageant finale within the park was in 1995. The native Pride motion continues to develop with no signal of slowing down.
A full checklist of pageant occasions might be discovered on the Victoria Pride web site at victoriapridesociety.org.
Youth Pride Kick-Off Party
June 28, 6 pm: on-line
Kick off the Victoria Pride Week Festival with an evening of inspirational audio system and dazzling performances in a web based occasion hosted by the Victoria Pride Society Youth Leadership Council. While geared for these 15 to 24 years outdated, the celebration is open to all ages and can embrace alternatives to play on-line interactive video games like Jackbox, Werewolves and Among Us.
Queer Activism Night
June 30 at 6 pm: on-line
Hosted by the Victoria Pride Youth Leadership Council, Queer Activism Night will convey collectively native audio system, activists and artists to current on and talk about the historical past of queer activism and present group points.
Big Gay Dog Walk
July 2 at 7pm: on-line
Our annual Big Gay Dog Walk goes digital! This 12 months, all furry, fluffy, feathered and different feisty mates are eligible for the normal Pride costume and trick contests! We wish to see your pets displaying their PRIDE by both exhibiting off their coolest methods or by dressing to impress! Prizes from Boom + Batten might be awarded to the highest winners in every class.
To enter the BGDW contest, publish a picture or a video (as much as 10 seconds) to Instagram or Facebook, tag Victoria Pride Society and use the hashtag #BGDW2021. Post and share your submissions earlier than June 21, then tune into our digital present on July 2 to assist vote for the winners.
Pride within the Word
July 3 at 8 pm: on-line
Join among the most proficient native and nationwide LGBTQIA2S+ writers for one of many nation’s largest Pride literary occasions. This 12 months’s spectacular line-up of featured writers will every learn a choice of their revealed work. This occasion at all times leaves audiences feeling a full vary of feelings.
#YYJ Pride Parade
July 4 at midday: on-line
This 12 months, you gained’t simply watch a parade: you’re the parade! Victoria Pride is asking on everybody below the rainbow to “Pride Up” their properties, places of work, shops fronts, vehicles, bikes or the rest that exhibits their PRIDE in the course of the month of June!
Show off your show of pleasure through the use of the hashtag #yyjpride on Instagram or Facebook, or ship a photograph to [email protected]. We’ll be capturing choose shows on video between June 14 and 21 for our parade montage of rainbow delights premiering on Sunday, July 4.
This is an opportunity to return collectively as we rejoice aside. Let’s be part of collectively to brighten up our native communities!
Victoria Pride Festival Extravaganza Show
July 4 at 1pm: on-line
The pinnacle occasion of the Victoria Pride Week Festival! The Victoria Pride Festival Extravaganza Show options a wide range of spectacular performances from native LGBTQIA2S+ artists from drag to bop to music and extra! This is a present you do not need to overlook!
Show Your Pride!
Every 12 months, the group is on the coronary heart of Pride, and VPS will proceed this legacy this 12 months. There might be quite a lot of alternatives for group members to indicate their pleasure and be part of the occasions.
“Pride belongs to the group,” mentioned Tillson. “This 12 months, we wish to give our group an opportunity to not simply watch our occasions however to even be part of them.”
Victoria Pride invitations group members to share in a single phrase: what does Pride imply to you? It might be expressed in writing (as much as 25 phrases), a photograph or a video of as much as 10 seconds. Selections might be included in our on-line occasions and communications. Submissions might be made on the VPS web site at victoriapridesociety.org or emailed to [email protected]. .
Pride in Victoria Goes Well Beyond the Festival
Pride occurs 12 months spherical in Victoria. VPS is happy to current two upcoming alternatives exterior of the Victoria Pride Week Festival that may showcase native LGBTQ2S+ artists:
The Vicarious Show Series
June 5, 12, 19, 26: on-line
Back by well-liked demand! Every Saturday evening in June main as much as the Victoria Pride Week Festival, the Vicarious Show will characteristic authentic and actually memorable performances from the perfect native drag artists. Hosted by the legendary Henrietta Dubet, the Vicarious Show collection might be accessible on-line within the consolation of your individual residence.
VPS/ECAH Queer Art Show
July 14 to 30: in individual
Jointly offered by the Victoria Pride Society and the Esquimalt Community Arts Hub, “For the Love of Us ALL” is a queer artwork exhibit exploring group, love, Pride and variety.
A central theme of the exhibit is exploring intersectionality throughout the queer group. Intersectionality is an idea that acknowledges that social components similar to race, class, gender, age and talent overlap and create amplified experiences of marginalization.
About The Victoria Pride Society
Victoria Pride creates alternatives for visibility, collaboration, ongoing conversations and celebration as we work in the direction of fairness for all individuals of various gender and sexual identities.
The Victoria Pride Society acknowledges that it organizes and works on the normal territories of the Lekwungen peoples, and that the land’s historic relationships with the Songhees, Esquimalt and W̱ SÁNEĆ peoples have existed since time immemorial. Further to this acknowledgement, the Victoria Pride Society affirms that colonialism, and the attitudes and practices which have accompanied it, contributes to systemic discrimination and violence in opposition to Indigenous Peoples.
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