Montreal pride parade coming back this summer

The pride parade will be coming back to Montreal this summer. Last year, it was cancelled only hours before due to miscommunication issues including security staff that had not been hired. But this year the festival assures the parade will be held.

In its programming unveiled Thursday – Fierté Montréal announced the parade will be held on August 13 at 1 p.m. and run along René-Lévesque Blvd.

“Last year, under challenging circumstances, the communities claimed loud and clear that pride is inextinguishable,” explained Simon Gamache, Fierté Montréal’s Executive Director.

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“We are back with a strong edition which, we hope, will meet their aspirations. Our vision is to offer a representative, accessible and generous festival to which we invite all Montrealers as well as visitors from all around the globe to discover and support the creativity and vitality of our communities.”

A report in October 2022 found that the morning of the parade, staff realized someone had forgotten to hire some 96 security staff needed for the parade later that day. The cancellation was announced hastily without the approval of the organization’s executive director or board of directors.

“I was there and people were lined up against the barricades,” said Noah Goldschmidt from Vancouver. “I found out on Twitter actually it had been canceled like last minute due to security.”

“I’m actually a drag queen and I didn’t even get the memo,” said Simon Fortin, known as Sisi Superstar in the drag world. 

(Courtesy: Sisi Superstar)

“I got all ready, put money on the outfit … and then cut,” Fortin said.

Many like Noah Goldschmidt from Vancouver, traveled a long way to make it to the festivities 

“You could just tell the disappointment in people’s faces standing out there in the hot, blazing sun for as long as we were out,” he said. “It was just a huge bummer.”

Community advocates say there’s no way a cancellation could occur again, that Pride Montreal is under scrutiny.

“I think we’re all paying a lot more attention to it this year,” said David Hawkins, Executive Director of the West Island LGBTQ2+ Centre. “But that also means that there’s a lot more investment and there’s a lot more excitement in it happening because for a lot of people, this might be the first time in two or three or four years even that the they get to experience the Montreal 2SLGBTQ+ community.”

The organization says this won’t be repeated.

“We learned a lot from that, it was extremely unfortunate was really, really difficult for everyone,” Gamache said. “We’ve really we’ve revised how we do things in terms our we we rebuild the production operations department. We have more solid commercial infrastructure, more solid communications ways of working together.”

Simon Gamache, Fierté Montréal’s Executive Director. (Courtesy: Alyssia Rubertucci, CityNews image)

The 17th edition of the festival will run from August 3-13 across the city – with the hub of events taking place once again at the Olympic Park’s Esplanade, as well as in the village.

Pride festivities will include 15 free shows, with 150 performers, 95 per cent from sexual and gender diversity.

“We especially want to allow people to experience the magic of inclusion and diversity with this deliberate emphasis on emerging artists and artists of colour. Our allies are invited to the party,” said Fierté Montréal’s Programming Director, Chris Ngabonziza.

About 200 staff members are needed for the parade and Pride montreal is currently recruiting and getting their game plan ready.

“This is a priority,” Gamache said. “Last year it was a problem, so this year, even more than ever, we will assign the right people at the right moment.”

And despite a bad taste in some people’s mouths from last year, nothing will stop them from turning up again this year on August 13.

“There’s still going to be that little bit of nervousness of don’t screw this up again for whatever reason,” said Goldschmidt. “But I’m excited to see it happen, it’s such a huge fanfare.”

The festival kicks off August 3, with a free dance party at Jardins Gamelin in downtown Montreal.

See the full programming here.