In 2009, as rainbow stickers began popping up in windows across town, the community started rumbling about the need for a pride festival.
According to Abner Brown, many in the LGBTQ community wanted to see a more open and connected community, and thought that a pride festival “would kind of open up the doors to show other LGTBQ people that Jasper was a really accepting place to be.”
Lynn Wannop, who at the time sat on the board of directors of HIV West Yellowhead, approached the organization’s executive director, Andrea Quick, and floated the idea.
Soon, Wannop was canvassing local businesses in town for draw prizes, and by the spring of 2010 the first-ever Japer Pride Weekend kicked off.
That year the event was little more than a party held at the Downstream Restaurant and Lounge, with between 40-60 people in attendance.
Brown, who worked for OUT Jasper organizing the event for years, said the whole thing came together in a “whirlwind” over a couple of months. Organizers had no idea how successful it would be.
Quick has similar memories.
“The first year’s always challenging. There’s lots of little kinks to work out, and money, and organizing,” she said.
Giggling at the memory, she recalled the team’s disappointment at the posters they made for the event.
“We didn’t feel they were gay enough,” she said with a laugh. Despite the questionable sexuality of their promotional material, however, the event garnered an incredibly positive response from those who attended.
Brown remembers walking into the Downstream the night of the party and being blown away.
“Just seeing the place packed with locals—which was just a great thing to see—but also meeting 30 or 40 people from out of town that were just so over the moon about having this here and encouraging us to have it again, was just amazing,” he said.
Wannop remembered that “there were more prizes than people” to give them to, because businesses had been so supportive with their donations.
With the positive response coming from their first event, organizers were excited to see what they could do with a whole year of planning.
In 2011 HIV West Yellowhead secured funding to support OUT Jasper—an LGBTQ advocacy group—and together the two agencies organized the Jasper Pride Weekend.
That year they brought in the drag performers Guys in Disguise, and the energy the group brought to the Saturday night gala brought the festival up a notch.
Since the beginning, the festival has grown in size each and every year. In fact, for last year’s event, hundreds of people turned up for what has become a weekend-long celebration.
Quick said that in the festival’s short history it has garnered a reputation as one of the best and most unique pride festivals in the area.
And while every year the party brings the LGBTQ community to town enforce, Brown and others said its impact stretches well beyond the weekend.
“Since that first event—since that first pride—you see couples come here and you see them holding hands and you see them kissing: that never existed before,” Quick explained.
Wannop and Brown both agreed, saying that they’ve noticed a significant change in the town’s overall acceptance of the LGBTQ community. Gay people feel safer here now, and it’s easier to come out than it ever has been in Jasper. Brown explained, in five years Jasper has become a safe space for the LGBTQ community.
Quick remembered one pride celebration, late in the evening at the gala party.
“It was getting pretty late in the night, and there was this big dance party. And all of a sudden I looked around and pretty much people were topless,” she said. “Seeing that take place I remember thinking, ‘You’ve got to feel really safe to express your body like that.’”
For most of Pride Weekend’s life, HIV West Yellowhead managed all of its financial and administrative aspects. But, last year, the Jasper Pride Festival Society formed, and it has now taken on all of those duties.
This was an important step in the festival’s history, because it put the festival’s organization and administration firmly in the hands of the local LGBTQ community. The society is a grassroots movement, and unlike OUT Jasper, doesn’t operate under the umbrella of another organization.
“That to me was the end goal, and the fact that it was achieved in under five years is amazing,” said Brown.
With the Jasper Pride Festival Society taking the reins this year, and the added gravitas of the festival’s five-year anniversary, the ante has certainly been upped for this year’s Pride Weekend.
Between the society’s heavy promotion and the snowballing momentum of the event, this year’s festival will undoubtedly be the biggest yet.
As well as moving from the Jasper Activity Centre to the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge, this year will feature a guided snowshoe excursion to Maligne Lake, a dinner theatre featuring selections from Calgary’s Fairy Tales Queer Film Festival, and even a morning yoga session.
And on March 22, Mr. Gay Canada will be in town, participating in the ski competitions at Marmot Basin. That event will see competitors dressed in their wildest jungle-themed costumes as they compete in both speed and style.
Following the outdoor adventures of the day, that night the Guys in Disguise will return once again to perform during the weekend’s signature event, the Pride Gala.
“I’m so excited for this year,” Wannop said with a smile, “if there’s one thing Jasper knows how to do it’s put on a drag show.”
The Jasper Pride Weekend is March 21–23. To see a schedule of events or to buy tickets for any of the events, visit www.jasperpride.ca.
Trevor Nichols
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