Fabian Fletcher, president of the board at tri-Pride Community Association Inc. comes into the studio to talk about the tri-Pride organization, the tri-Pride Summer Festival, the performers, the history of Pride, some other 2SLGBTQIA+ organizations including Spectrum, and ideas for future activities and events.
Introducing Fabian Fletcher, the President of the Board of Directors of tri-Pride, an all-volunteer organization. In addition to the summer festival there’s Winter Pride, in February or March, and PRIDEtoberfest during the Octoberfest weekend. The Board works on organizing the events, but also works on policies and procedures, governance issues, and work more on advocacy and doing grass-roots community organization. The Board is eight or nine folx, a Vice-President and other Board directors who take on roles like vendors market, sponsorships, a treasurer, a development director: a small but mighty group. But there are twenty-plus volunteers who do the work of setting-up and tear-down, oversee the vendors market, volunteers to manage the stage area. There are enough volunteers for the summer festival, but people can sign up now for the fall and winter events. To volunteer, contact info@tri-pride.ca or look for the volunteer call-out on social media.
6m45s
Planning for the summer event started in January; lots of paperwork. The summer festival this year is taking place at Willow River Park, officially known as Victoria Park. The vendor market filled up really early this year, but there are still people looking for spots. This is the second year back after a Covid absence. Last year was really well attended, hoping to increase that for this year.
9m54s
Aside from the vendor booths, there will be performances from Noon to 4pm, local live performers, music, spoken word, standup. From 4pm to 8pm there will be the drag performances. Alysha Brilla is the musical headliner, and the headline drag performers are Ongina and Trinity K. Bonet, both from Ru Paul’s Drag Race. tri-Pride has a sign-up sheet for local performers, but the headline acts were cold-called. There’s a great drag scene in Waterloo Region.
12m27s
tri-Pride has been operating since 2002, doing summer festivals and other events. The City of Kitchener has an events team that coordinates with tri-Pride to arrange all the applications and paperwork. tri-Pride is very privileged to have the Board members it does to fill out paperwork and applying for licenses. Fabian wishes were ways to make the process more accessible to smaller organizations and community-based folks to have space in the park to have events. The requirements for audited financial statements are out of reach of organizations on shoe-string budgets that have no finances.
The tri-Pride festival this year is on Saturday, 10 June 2023 in Willow River Park, from Noon to 8pm. “tri”-Pride covers all three cities, Kitchener, Waterloo, and Cambridge, although they have not been out in Cambridge as much as they want to. But Grand River Pride has just started up in Cambridge, having their summer festival also on Saturday, 10 June 2023!
20m58s
Covering some of the history of the Pride movement, starting with the Stonewall Riots in 1969. Are things getting worse today? Not necessarily, intolerance has always been there, but people today are less hesitant about sharing their hate. Life has become more difficult for Queer folx, actions v transferring over from the United States. Fabian knows of incidents across Canada, not so much in Waterloo Region, although there is the example in Oxford county with the municipality of Norwich refusing to fly the Pride flag.
25m26s
What actions can tri-Pride and other organizations take? It’s tricky, because the organizations need to ensure the safety their membership. Non-Queer folks can show up for the Queer community at events, protests, and rallies, get involved with local organizations, and lobby their elected officials. tri-Pride joined #Act4QueerSafety, and signed a letter addressed to government officials at both provincial and federal levels to say “Enough is enough, you need to act for Queer safety.” But while getting involved, there will be spaces strictly reserved for the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. For example, tri-Pride is trying to create safe spaces geared toward BIPOC Queer folk, IndigiQueer youth, Two-Spirit youth, and those intersecting personalities. But non-Queer folk should show up for the larger festivals and use their voice and use their privilege to advocate for their 2SLGBTQIA+ community members.
Talking about tri-Pride‘s online presence; keeping it up-to-date is tough with volunteers. The main website needs to be updated, there’s a new volunteeer to do that.
Talking about other Pride organizations across Canada. There’s a Canada-wide organization, and a world-wide organization called InterPride. Joining such a federation gives tri-Pride a chance to hear from other organizations what’s working for them, to support each other, and to brainstorm ideas for festivals. There’s no Canada-wide Pride festival, although Captital Pride in Ottawa has what is deemed the nation-wide Pride festival, and InterPride has a festival as well.
37m43s
Pride festivals aren’t so much a protest any more, but a celebration. Fabian says it’s building communities. Talking about other events, like PRIDEtoberfest, a dance / drag performance / other performance. It’s an indoor event, unlike the summer festival. Winter Pride is a bit smaller, a dance with one or two drag performers. Fabian would like to have more social, low-key events like coffee nights, or speed friending.
39m50s
Talking about other Pride organizations, like Spectrum, in the same building as the CKMS-FM studio. Fabian is a staff member at Spectrum, overseeing their volunteers and operations. But tri-Pride is careful not to step on anyone’s toes, looking to support and uplift other organizations. Talking about some of Spectrum‘s programs, Fabian mentions “capacity building”, to be more accepting and creating safer space for Queer folks. tri-Pride focuses on the events, and focus on creating spaces. They’re looking at ways to do smaller events throughout the year that are tailored to different parts of their community.
Fabian tells us how Alysha Brilla came to be the headliner for this year’s festival. This year’s lineup was chosen to highlight diversity to represent what our community actually looks like.
50m45s
Bob and Fabian go over the details of the coming tri-Pride festival: Noon to 8pm on Saturday 10 June 2023 in Willow River Park, followed by a dance starting at 9pm hosted by Queer Night Out.
52m35s
Bob thanks Fabian for being on the show, and gives the end credits.
CKMS Community Connections Hour One airs on CKMS-FM 102.7 on Monday from 11:00am to Noon, and Hour Two airs alternate Fridays from 3:00pm to 4:00pm.
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