New route, same celebration: What to expect at the 2023 Vancouver Pride Parade

Pride celebrations will look different in Vancouver this year, with a new route planned for the festival’s biggest parade to date.

The marquee event of the city’s Pride weekend will kick off on Sunday at noon, beginning at the intersection of Davie and Denman streets. From there, between 140 and 150 floats and entries are set to travel 3.1 kilometres, down Pacific Street and along Pacific Boulevard, to the new finish line at Concord Pacific Place.

Compared to the previous route, which was 2.7 kilometres, the 2023 parade path is longer, flatter, with fewer hills and wider sidewalks.

The changes emerged from a collaboration between the non-profits Vancouver Pride Society and Live Educate Transform Society.

“We’ve been trying to figure out how to increase accessibility for folks who wouldn’t be able to attend the parade,” said Vancouver Prides Society co-chair Michelle Fortin during an interview with CTV Morning Live on Thursday. “(LETS) let us know that the reality is we needed wider sidewalks, more viewing areas and an opportunity for people to have some shade,” explained Fortin.

Three accessible viewing zones will be set up Sunday, including one above the English Bay Bathhouse where wearing a face mask is mandatory. Seniors are invited to watch the parade from Yaletown’s Roundhouse Community Centre and people who require VocalEye and ASL interpretation can enjoy the show from a zone outside of BC Place on Pacific Boulevard.

Road closures on Sunday will impact parts of Denman and Davie streets, the stretch of Beach Avenue from Denman to Jervis streets as well as Pacific Avenue between Jervis and Carral streets. The traffic disruptions will begin as early as 5 a.m. Sunday and end by 4 p.m.

This year will be the first in which the parade and festival grounds are within walking distance of three SkyTrain stations.

Locals and tourists alike will be able to enjoy not one, but two days of Pride programming at the festival grounds at Concord Pacific Place.

RECONNECTING AND FUTURE PLANNING

The theme of this year’s Pride is “reconnect,” which Fortin says reflects the city’s ability to come together again, now that strict COVID-19 measures have been dropped.

“It’s also about reconnecting to the history—or herstory—of Pride. This was a protest,” said Fortin.

The first Pride marches were held in three U.S. cities in 1970, one year after a police raid at New York’s Stonewall Inn sparked a series of protests and inspired a gay rights movement. Vancouver’s first official Pride parade was held in 1981.

“There are still a lot of folks in our community who have not arrived, who are not given the same respect and opportunities that the rest of us are,” Fortin told CTV News. “We know that there has been an attack on, for instance, drag, drag storytime and drag camp—even in B.C. This year, we want to reconnect with who we are, where we came from and where we want to go with each other.”

Even bigger plans are on the horizon for next year, when Vancouver is set to host Canada Pride.

Fortin says the event will be a larger-scale version of Vancouver Pride with additional human rights components.

“We’re taking the reins from Winnipeg—they did a great job a couple of years ago—but we’re hoping to do things a little differently because we have the amazing support of our three host nations,” she explained, referring to the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh and Musqueam first nations.

“I think you’ll see the biggest parade ever,” said Fortin.