Saskatoon pride

At parade marshaling by the river. Note my classic pride shirt!

Elizabeth visited this past weekend. We hoped for some nice sister time while Graham was in Vancouver for a long stretch, but we were really lucky that his weekend was also pride weekend in Saskatoon. Now I love me some pride festivities, but not all pride parades are parties. Like Joe’s sign ‘This used to be a riot’, equality and acceptance haven’t reached all the earth’s corners (recall Budapest pride in 2009). I was worried that some of the conservatism and social justice non-savvy-ness I have encountered here so far might make Saskatoon pride more like Budapest than Toronto – but I was keen to go either way, either for fun or for fighting.  How happy I am that it was fun!

The pirate ship float and burly captain. Arg!!

Elizabeth and I were in the parade as hula hoop dancers. It was fantastic! Elizabeth had enough lead time to pack one of her many awesome celebrities rainbow-glitter costumes, and she was a real hit! Also very brave given she was fairly new as a hula hooper, but Elizabeth is outgoing and fun-loving so this was right up her alley. As a photogenic super star, there was a picture of her on the metro news site.  Hooping-queen Karla brought her whole family along, 3 daughters and husband Jason.  Ivy is a 7-year old hoop phenom who used two hoops in the parade and hooped while on her Mom’s shoulders.  awesome!  There was a photo of Ivy too, and Hula hooping was mentioned as a parade features.  Ye-ha!!

The women in trades float. These ladies rocked so hard in their safety vests and hard hats! I loved it. We were invited to their house party, but already had plans – maybe next time! I hope there is a pinata and when you smack it earplugs come out. yeah!

This was the 20th anniversary of Saskatoon pride, and the parade set a record for participants. The fabulous sunny weather helped the turnout, even if it did give us a bit of a sunburn on our shoulders.

The Diva Disco smart car. I think this can only be driven in Saskatoon like 5 months a year.

The parade ended in Victoria park with live music, free (delicious) cake, veggie tacos, and a beer garden. We met up with some of my Saskatoon buddies and also met lots of new people – it turns out hoops are a great conversation starter so I lent mine out to lots of folks to try. Hoop evangelism in action!

More floats getting ballooned up in marshaling

We unfortunately missed the backalley antics performance art show, but finished the evening at a dance club for a diva-disco-drag dance party. Fantastic! I did a lot of paddling this week so I was a bit tired and thought we would just stay for a little bit… but it was so fun we ended up shutting it down.

Elizabeth enjoying the great weather and live music
One of the glitter-rainbow unicorn troop. It was like Elizabeth was reunited with her long-lost tribe.

2 Comments

  1. I love absolutely every single thing about this post. Extra special notes: that Catherine has hula hoops to lend, the tiny smart car, and Elizabeth finding her long lost glitter rainbow unicorn troop. Go, team.

  2. I love everything about this post too! It was so fun and this is such a fun way to remember it. What an awesome post Catherine. 🙂
    Thank you so much for having me, it was so fun!
    you are so awesome.
    xo
    elizabeth

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