With less than nine months until the eighth annual Jasper Pride Festival its board is already moving ahead with next year’s plans—hoping for an even bigger and better affair.
At the Jasper Pride Festival Society’s annual general meeting, May 24, co-chair Susan McCarthy announced 2017’s event is slated for March 9-12 with the theme “Jasper Proud and Free."
“Our theme kind of joins in with Canada celebrating 150 years,” McCarthy said. “We want to combine history, culture, arts and music. We’re just starting our strategic planning and we’re very welcome to any ideas.”
The 2016 four-day festival saw more than 1,000 people attend 24 events—many of which were sold-out. In order to keep the momentum going, the society promoted an online feedback survey following this year’s festival. More than 100 people filled out the online form, and those results are now being used to help improve next year’s festival.
“We think these are pretty good statistics to start on,” said co-chair Uwe Walter.
The survey found overall satisfaction to be above 95 per cent.
“The big thing people commented on was the community spirit,” McCarthy said. “People said they came here and felt a part of the community and that they felt comfortable and it didn’t matter who they were holding hands with—they could walk down the street and no one looked at them any differently.”
When asked about the length and date of the festival, the majority of people surveyed said four days in March was an ideal time.
The survey also looked at the economic benefits the festival brings to Jasper. It showed that in 2016 the majority of out-of-towners stayed in hotels for an average of three nights and most people spent around $500-$2,000 on various amenities during their stay.
“The investment in the quality of programs really paid off and made people want to stay longer—we want people to treat this as a mini vacation in the winter,” Walter said. “We’re doing this festival to promote Jasper as an LGBT year-round destination and also to support our local businesses.”
Next year the society hopes to promote their pride rate—a discount offered for select hotels and accommodations during the festival. The survey indicated only 39 per cent of people knew about the special rate.
Walter attributed some of the 2016 festival’s overwhelming success to a huge boost in promotion on social media.
“When you look at the LGBT market it’s a little bit different than the mainstream because so much of it is all about social media and word of mouth,” Walter said. “This year we had a lot of people sharing our events on social media and saying how great the festival was.”
The society also recognized Tourism Jasper for marketing this year’s festival.
Earlier in May the society received a $50,000 grant from the province’s Community Facility Enhancement Program. Walter said the money will be used to pay off any remaining bills from the 2016 festival.
“This gives us financial resources and flexibility moving forward because the funds we received prior to getting the grant we pushed those forward,” Walter said. “The grant will pay for the majority of the costs from this year’s festival.”
The AGM also touched on the how much the festival has grown in less than a decade. In 2013 the Jasper Pride Gala saw 300 attendees while in 2016 that number more than doubled with 750 people.
“Word is really getting out there,” McCarthy said. “And we want to see that continue.”
Kayla Byrne
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