The first Pride Festival for Kentville, Wolfville, kicks off this week

Two towns in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley are celebrating their first official Pride Festival this week, with a series of events and performances.

It’s called Valley Pride and it takes place in the Kentville and Wolfville areas.

“We’ve been so impressed with the support we’ve received from the community, from the volunteers who help us put on the events, local businesses who have sponsored us,” Ashley Cyr, the festival’s coordinator, told CBC Radios. Information Morning Nova Scotia.

The festival starts on Wednesday and runs through Sunday. Events include a Pride patch embroidery workshop, an open mic night, drag performances, a concert, and a Pride march – all in honor of the LGBTQ community.

Cyr said she was concerned about how the festival would be received by the communities, but so far everyone has supported it.

“It’s one of those things where the more people get excited, the more we add to it,” she said.

“We’ve got quite a large and exciting series of events. Certainly more than we planned at the beginning, but we’re so happy with how it’s coming together.”

She said some of the events will be family-friendly, including a rock painting station in Kentville’s Center Square in conjunction with the local mural festival.

There will also be singing and picnicking with the Wolfville Queer Community Chorus and a softball game at Memorial Park.

“It’s going to be super low pressure,” Cyr said. “You don’t have to be an athlete, you just have to be willing to learn, maybe get a little wet when it rains, because rain or shine we’ll be.”

Cyr said there will also be some “spicier” events for ages 19 and up – one of them is called “Everyone’s a Whittle Bit Gay”.

“We have an all-queer variety show on Friday nights at the Al Whittle [Theatre]so that’s going to be music, comedy, burlesque, drag,” she said.

There will also be a drag show Saturday at the King’s Arms Pub in Kentville, which was the subject of online backlash after another drag event was organized earlier this year.

It is so important to us to ensure that everyone in our community can access and feel safe at the events.– Ashley Cyr, Valley Pride Coordinator

Cyr said there are still concerns about potential protests, so the festival has hired security for some events thanks to some federal funding aimed at ensuring Pride festivals remain safe.

“We draw from people who are from the community and are familiar with working with the gay community,” Cyr said.

“We think it’s going to be really helpful to make people feel a little bit more comfortable with both the safety that security provides and the safety of knowing that these are people who aren’t coming from a law enforcement standpoint.”

She added that accessibility has been part of the festival’s planning since day 1.

“It’s so important to us to make sure everyone in our community can access the events and feel safe,” said Cyr.

She said there will be sign language interpreters at the shows and accessibility notes on each event page so people know what kind of space and resources will be available to them.

Cyr said she’s excited for the festival to kick off, especially after all the LGBTQ activism in the Annapolis Valley.

“We couldn’t have done that [this] without the really strong foundation that other people have laid and the activism that’s been going on here for years, so we’re very grateful to those people.