Saskatoon Pride Week to offer variety of virtual and drive-thru events this year

Some creative ideas, planning and ingenuity means Saskatoon’s Pride Festival is a go this year.

While there won’t be any in-person events during the festival June 12-19, board member and past co-chair Mike McCoy says there’s a cornucopia of events going on across the city.

“The opening event is called ‘Drag Me Through Saskatchewan,’ ” he said. “It’s a drive-in drag tour and that’s sort of a performance of the YXE Drag Collective and they’re doing it throughout Saskatchewan.”

On June 13, there’s a virtual online trivia game. There are a host of other events including a a virtual Pride flag-raising ceremony on June 14, discussions on two-spirit women’s experiences, a global panel discussion on trans rights, and the movie “Hairspray” as a feature drive-in event on June 18.

On June 19, the week will be capped off with a virtual Pride parade. McCoy says co-ordinating so many events was a huge task; it was almost easier last year because there wasn’t too much warning about cancelling the festival due to COVID-19 and the organization had to pivot quickly. This year was different.

“Certainly from the depths of winter … there was definitely a sense of everyone being a bit isolated and not really knowing what was going to happen,” he said. “We had a time where there was definitely some doubt of whether we could do this again or not.

“But we knew we had to do something. The community expected it and, frankly, deserved it.”

He said organizers have been very fortunate to have so many volunteers and businesses that have made the job rewarding.

“We’re very excited about what’s to come,” he added.

More information on events, times and dates is available here.