Montreal's pride festival kicks off

Fierté Montréal's festival has officially started. The event, which runs until August 11th, includes three outdoor event hubs where more than 200 artists will perform.

Free outdoor events will be held at three different hubs this year, including the Olympic Park, the Gay Village, and Ville Marie. For the first time ever, a hub will also be in the Quartier des Spectacles in Montreal's downtown core.

The program also includes indoor events.

"In venues like le Club Soda, in La Société des arts technologiques, in the theater Le National, at Place des Arts, at the National Film Board of Canada," said Chris Ngabonziza, the director of programming of Fierté Montréal.

Some 240 artists are participating in the 150 events planned over the 11-day program.

"Most of the artists are part of our communities and it's really, really diverse, it's extremely dynamic, extremely diverse," Ngabonziza said.

Unlike previous years, this edition doesn't have one stand-out headliner. Ngabonziza said he believes this is a better use of the organization's resources.

"To really give this opportunity to a lot of the artists here who work very tirelessly all year long."

Still, Fierte Montreal is keeping its winning recipe by including drag shows, dance parties, and community-focused events in its program, much to the delight of Montrealers.

"Just took my vacation that time just for those events, for that weekend," Ian Menard said about attending the festival.  

Maria Rivera, who is also attending the festival, said she is looking forward to the drag shows.

Along with preparing activities, organizers have also put together an action plan because protests have disrupted and even cancelled pride festivals around the world since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

"In Toronto on that day but also in New York, in San Francisco, in London - those are big prides. So, we really paid attention to what happened in those four cities," Simon Gamache, the executive director of Fierte Montreal.

Gamache says the organization is well prepared for this, particularly when it comes to security for the annual parade on August 11th.

"We have 219 people hired for the parade, hired and are paid. And on top of that we have 150 volunteers," he added.

That's in addition to Montreal police, which will have their own team in place.

This year's pride parade theme is 'we are the rainbow'. Gamache says the theme is a reflection of the need for unity in the face of rising hate towards 2SLGBTQ+ communities.