Why Calgary celebrates pride in September when June is ‘Pride Month’

June 4, 2022 114

You might be seeing all the rainbow flags, the corporate logos dressed up in rainbows or all the social media talking about “Pride Month,” but Calgary’s big weekend doesn’t technically take place until the end of the summer.

Calgary’s Pride weekend used to take place in June, the same as many other celebrations across North America that commemorate The Stonewall Inn uprising in 1969. That’s when a group of queer people rioted against police harassment at the bar in New York City’s Greenwich Village.

But while poignant, the previous date of Calgary Pride proved challenging for a festival synonymous with summer.

“It’s really a matter of weather,” said Zac Remple, communications co-ordinator with Calgary Pride. “We’ve done Prides in June and we always got rained on, and the weather in September is a little bit more consistent.”