THUNDER BAY— “Zeus can't rain on our parade, and it is the big gay comeback at the Coliseum,” said Scotia Kauppi, Chair of Thunder Pride.
The city’s annual Pride Parade and Festival will now be held in October albeit without an actual parade.
The event was postponed after a severe thunderstorm watch was issued for the original July 5 date.
“It rained so much that the whole park was flooded,” Kauppi said.
“Even if we had pushed the festival back like by an hour or two, it still would have been so gross and mucky.”
Kauppi said organizers and community members are working to ensure that Pride is still visible and vibrant throughout the city, holding the new festival date on Oct. 4 from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the coliseum building on the CLE grounds.
Several events have been planned, with local vendors, food trucks and family-friendly activities, she said.
“We are still going to have a march, the parade is cancelled just because it takes months and months of planning with the city and the police and all the emergency services to shut down roads and everything,” she said.
“We are going to kind of start in front of the CLE Coliseum building and just walk around down Memorial, down Isabel and Simpson and then Northern, just the little inward corner block there so we can still have our march,” she said.
Kauppi said because of the cancellation funding for the annual event has run low.
“It also costs a lot of money and because of our late-notice cancellation, we had to still pay all of the people and officers and everything for their time and for the cancelled work,” she said.
Even after dealing with temperamental weather this summer, Kauppi said October being LGBTQ history month offers hope for the future.
“We are happy that it's during LGBT History Month,” she said.
“That's why we kind of chose that date, plus we needed a little bit of time to figure out when we could actually do something and we have moved into the CLE just so we can avoid any more interruptions by the weather.”
As pride flags continue to wave across businesses and homes the message of love, inclusion, and resilience will continue to be apart of the city for years to come, she said.
“We actually just took all of the plans and everything that got cancelled for this year at the Friendship Gardens and the route for the parade and we just moved it all until next year because it was already all approved,” she said.
“Everyone was so excited to have their signs and their costumes and dress up and wave their flags and everything, so we are still excited that we can still do that.”
