GALLERY: Okotoks comes together with Pride festival

Okotokians showed their Pride at the first large-scale festival of its type to grace Elizabeth Street.

Organized by Okotoks Pride, the event drew hundreds, lining Elizabeth Street between Elk Avenue and Veterans Way with an entertainment stage, LGBTQ2+ friendly resource and vendor stalls, an assortment of food trucks and a host of other activities.

“The feedback I’ve got so far was so great, both from parents and the many youths that were there,” said Shannon MacPherson, co-chair of Okotoks Pride, who also performed as drag king Shane OnYou.

“We had tons of resources there, which was phenomenal, from churches that are affirming to Skipping Stones, which helps many trans youths and questioning people, even the library was there.

“It was great to see local people really stepping up and saying, ‘It’s about time.’”

Running the stage, MacPherson was at the beating heart of the festival’s entertainment offering.

“It was really good feedback; people said it was a lot of fun, they enjoyed the shows and the stage went really well,” she said.

One of the stage events MacPherson was happy to see go over well was the Drag Story Time.

“It was really well received, and I had some parents ask for book names afterwards,” she said.

From the get-go, the event was intended to be family friendly.

“I had some great feedback from the kids of course, but I had quite a few parents come up and say they didn’t realize it would be this much fun," MacPherson said. “I think they kind of thought it would be more like an adult party instead of a festival.

“I think a lot of people picture pride as some of the more adult parts of it, and yeah, we do do that stuff, but that happens at bars, it’s not part of the festival or part of the protest.”

Elaborating on that, MacPherson went on to say that even with the jovial atmosphere, the goal is still to hold a safe space and raise LGBTQ2+ voices.

“Pride isn’t just a party, it’s a protest, and one kid went and posted online that Pride will continue to happen until all peoples’ rights are met,” she said.

MacPherson credited Okotoks Pride co-chair Tom Barker for the heavy lifting of getting the festival running.

“And he nailed it. I think together the committee will have a bigger team next near,” MacPherson said.

“We think that means we’ll be able to go bigger next year, which is a positive note coming out of this one.

“It was a good day, a powerful day.”

For more information and resources, visit http://linktr.ee/OkotoksPride