Self-described anti-capitalist Pride festival coming to Montreal this summer

There will be a new Pride festival in Montreal this summer.

It’s called “Wild Pride,” and organizers promise it will be anti-capitalist and anti-police.

It comes as a reaction to the city’s very popular Fiérté Montréal festival.

“To be an example of what Pride is supposed to be at the same time as this corporate Pride,” said co-organizer Zev Saltiel.

Festival organizers say Wild Pride is for queer, trans, racialized, Muslim, Jewish, Indigenous, disabled, neurodivergent, the unhoused, undocumented, and many more.

“We don’t want to just have a festival that’s a showing off of the one single identity of being queer,” said festival co-organizer Mariam Mannai. “This festival is going to present the different identities.”

“We’re going against the capitalistic rhythm of festivals where there’s like one event after the other, after the other, after the other,” added fellow co-organizer Yara Coussa.

One of the main reasons that the festival was created, according to organizers, was from a desire to have a festival without large corporate sponsors.

“There were many of us who believed in the need for Fiérté to divest from large corporate sponsors and also to distance itself from Zionism,” Saltiel said. “Their need to stay with all of these partners created our need to leave.”

In a text message to CityNews, a Fiérté Montréal spokesperson said it was open to the creation of a new festival “with a view to recognizing the diversity of tactics and perspectives within the 2SLGBTQIA+ communities.”

The “Wild Pride” festival will take place in Montreal from July 30 to Aug. 17, starting one day before and ending one week after Fiérté Montréal. The full program of events will be released in the next two weeks; it will include parties, community workshops and swimming days for parents.

“Some parties, but also a lot of community workshops, a lot of discussions, a lot of book readings,” Coussa said.

“I am a trans person, I am a parent, I’ve given birth,” Saltiel said. “I am a Jewish person. So I will be along with Independent Jewish Voices Montreal hosting a Shabbat dinner.”

The organizers have also confirmed there will be a march during the same time as Fiérté Montréal’s Pride Parade.

“When I first walked for Fiérté, I did feel like I was like, ‘oh my God, yes, I might be queer.’” Coussa recounted. “And we don’t want to rob people of that, especially young people who might want to walk, but who are Palestinian, Arab.”

“Ideally in the long term, we can keep doing this,” added Saltiel. “We can continue to be an example also not just here, but in other places of the ability to have a Pride that is divested from corporations and pinkwashing.”