A portion of Main Street in Smithers was closed to vehicle traffic on Saturday for the pride society’s annual festival.
It featured various information booths, live music, food vendors, and more.
“This is now our nineth year so we’ve got a number of things worked out, dialed in, and it was great to see all the community groups and vendors that showed up to help create that festival atmosphere,” said Vice President Perry Rath.
New this year was a concert Friday evening featuring Rae Spoon at the Driftwood School House.
Rath said about 40 people attended with the venue able to hold 50.
“As we’ve been getting more comfortable with all the different pieces of organizing things, we’ve been slowly expanding and that includes Friday evening events to kick off the weekend,” he said.
Last year was the first Friday event the society put on with Ella Lamoureux giving a two spirit talk.
She will be holding a bingo night on June 25 and trivia night on June 26.
Returning this year was the Sunday drag brunch which took a year off in 2025.
“After we were in talks with Roadhouse to see if everyone involved had the capacity to run one again this year and it was a go, it definitely seemed like everyone said, ‘Yes, it’s back!'” said Rath.
He added everyone he saw looked like they were having a good time with some posting on social media about their experience.
For 2027, there aren’t any concrete plans though some of the drag queens expressed interest in returning again for the event.
It will also be the society’s tenth annual festival.
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