This year’s Jasper Pride Weekend was the biggest and best attended in the festival’s six-year history.
According to Jörg Michel, the Jasper Pride Festival Society’s marketing director, initial estimates indicate that attendance was up from last year at almost all of the events.
“The attendance to all of our events was pretty amazing, and we were pretty happy about that,” he said.
This was especially true of the festival’s signature event: the Saturday night gala at the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge.
Michel said that this year 650 people attended the Wicked White Winter themed gala—two hundred more than were there in 2014.
This year festival organizers took a big step, extending the festival to span four days from March 19–22 and adding several new events to the lineup. A family pride event, karaoke and two high-energy shows on Friday night were added to favourites like the movie dinner theatre, ice walks and Saturday-night drag show.
In all, the festival boasted 16 events over its four-day span.
Kicking things off on Thursday was an unknown for organizers, but Michel said they are incredibly happy with the results.
“We were really amazed by the turnout on Thursday night,” he said, noting that 30 people showed up for their pride movie night, and close to 100 came out for the launch of the Wicked White Weissbier, the official Pride beer made by the Jasper Brewing Company.
“One third of the visitors who actually came from outside of Jasper actually opted to stay three nights [and] that tells us a little story. It tells us that people did make that effort to stay a little bit longer.
“It really shows that this weekend has further potential for the future,” Michel said.
And while he and other volunteers and organizers worked tirelessly to make the festival a success, Michel said that their rapid growth would not be possible without the undying support of the community.
“When people come to Jasper Pride they feel that this is not a commercial event, like [so many others]. This is really a community reaching out to their visitors and their friends. That’s how they feel, and that’s why we have very, very loyal visitors who come back every year.
“I think the core of the success is really that there’s an emotional connection between the community and our guests. That is felt by both ends, and I think that is why people keep coming back.”
Trevor Nichols
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