Pride Winnipeg

03 MAY 25 - JUNE 3, 2018 Everyone remembers their first time. And in the case of the long-running Pride Winnipeg Festival — the 31st instalment of which kicks off tomorrow and continues until June 3 throughout the city — it's safe to say there have been some pretty memorable firsts. But for Jonathan Niemczak, Pride Winnipeg's president since 2012, the inaugural festival experience proved memorable for slightly different reasons. When he was first recruited to the organizing committee's ranks in 2008, he'd never actually attended the event he was soon tasked with helping to coordinate. "I had to fake my way through that first year, and not let on that I'd never been to the festival before, and now I was helping to plan it," says Niemczak, whose busy schedule that year prevented him from actually partaking in any first-time fun. "I saw the beginning of the parade and I saw the end of the parade, and that was it. My first Pride was more about learning the ropes. The festival was smaller back then, but there were still a lot of people and moving pieces and fires that needed to be put out." Fast forward a few years, and Niemczak and his fellow committee members — all volunteers — are still every bit as busy. (Case in point: After nearly a decade with the Pride team, Niemczak was finally able to walk the parade route for the first time last summer.) And the Fest itself has grown by leaps and bounds over the same period. Once a smallish affair held mostly at Memorial Park and the Legislature lawn, Pride is now a summer- festival staple at The Forks, with closing weekend attendance numbers to rival Canada Day. "When I started, the parade had maybe 15, 20 entries … and the festival at Memorial Park was quaint — probably a couple thousand people," says Niemczak. "Last year, we had 103 entries in the parade. Now we're bigger than the Santa Claus parade — we're the biggest parade in the province, and one of the biggest parades in the Prairies, with thousands and thousands of people either participating or as spectators. "The quote we got last year was they figured 50,000 individuals came to The Forks over the closing weekend … it's absolutely massive." Pride's audience could grow even more in years to come. Following efforts last year to increase engagement among traditionally socially excluded groups within the LGBT community, this year's organizing committee continued seeking ways to engage with even more diverse audiences than ever before. As a result of consultations with various community partners, Pride organizers launched the Resurgence Fund — a batch of grant money made available to groups that lack the resources to host their own community events during the Festival. They also hired an Accessibility Coordinator who's working on a plan to identify barriers faced by those with physical impairments or mental health-related concerns. "We're gathering that feedback now and looking at how we can implement changes to the Festival, to increase the level of inclusivity we have currently," Niemczak says. As on offshoot of that mandate, the Pride board also opted recently to retire the more traditionally used LGBTTQ acronym, in favour of GSRD — for Gender, Sexual and Relationship Diversity — which has been gaining in popularity since 2016. "It's shorter now, but I can't say for sure there won't be more letters added," Niemczak laughs. "I mean, in the course of one year, we already added [the letter R]. "But it is more inclusive, because we're no longer specifically identifying gender identities or sexual orientation. And we do believe that in time, more and more organizations will be dropping the LGBTTQ acronym and will start moving towards this, so we're happy to be ahead of the curve." Another new development is the Pride parade route along York Avenue. Though many community members hoped last year's parade down Portage Avenue would be repeated this year, Niemczak says logistics — and the cost of shutting down Portage — proved too prohibitive. Instead of the usual loop that starts and finishes at the Legislature grounds, participants will end their route at nearby Bonnycastle Park — a change necessitated by the event's continued growth. "In 2016, the parade had gotten so big that the beginning of the parade got back to the Legislature before the end of the parade had even left," Niemczak explains. "It bottlenecked and created a whole logistical disaster. We'd realized we were now too big to do a loop." Attendees will also notice some changes to the Festival grounds at The Forks, including a combined area for concessions, a revamped health and wellness area (complete with first aid and counselling services), and a more centralized location for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers KidZone. As always, the grounds will also play host to the Queer Beer beverage tent, mainstage entertainment, and a PrideMart promoting LGBT and allied business. For those attending for the first time this year, Niemczak suggests bringing along trusted friends or family members. "Pride is generally best experienced with someone else — especially if you're shy, since it can be a bit intimidating if it's your first time," he says. "Try to take it all in, but definitely go at your own pace." Growing with Pride 31 ST FESTIVAL CONTINUES TO EXPAND AND EVOLVE Pride Winnipeg president Jonathan Niemczak. PHOTO BY DARCY FINLEY

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