Help wanted

Volunteers needed at 2022 Pride P.E.I. Festival as full in-person events return

With the return of in-person events at the Pride P.E.I. Festival, the board is putting out a call for volunteers.

Lucky Fusca, chair of Pride P.E.I., says the organization has been busy getting ready for the Pride Festival, which runs July 16-24. Pride released its full schedule at the end of June and is looking for volunteers, Fusca said.

“They’re kind of coming in a little slower than what I had been hoping, and part of that might just be folks not getting the notifications through our social media. So, we might add some print, just to try to get a different method of communication out to the community.”

Signature events will return this year, such as Pride in the Park, Pride after Dark and the Pride parade.

New events will include a pair of seal watching tours, a queer ceilidh and song circle and a trans-centred music event sponsored by Lacuna.

Three Pride Talks will also take place at the Black Cultural Society, and City Cinema will host a movie night.

One new event is particularly important to Fusca – a dog fashion show called Rupaws Canine Drag Race.

“It is much harder, if not completely inaccessible, for queer folks to starts families on their own. So, a lot of us end up with fabulous fur babies that really, truly are our children,” Fusca said.

“I wanted to throw something to honour that, celebrate queer families and all of the beautiful ways that they exist.”

FESTIVAL DIRECTOR

In fall of 2021, Pride went into a temporary trusteeship after several candidates dropped out of the race for board at the annual general meeting. The organization elected an entirely new board in January of 2022, but this meant starting from scratch without any formal transfer of knowledge, Fusca said.

For Fusca and the rest of the board, this was like putting together a 1,000-piece puzzle without seeing the image.

That's why it was "serendipitous” when Tyler Murnagahan, a former longtime Pride P.E.I. board director, reached out to ask if the new board needed help,” Fusca said.

“I reached out and was like, ‘Hey, you’re kind of reaching me at a critical point of needing a lot of guidance and assistance here.”

While Pride is totally volunteer-run during the year, they have funding to hire a festival director in the summer and brought in Murnaghan to fill this role.

The festival will feature over 30 events this year, Murnaghan said.

COVID-19 restrictions made planning more complicated last year, with the need for operational plans and other precautions, but there doesn't seem to be any red tape this time, he said.

“It’s always in the back of our mind, watching the news as they talk about new variants. Any time they bring up case numbers it’s kind of a ‘please don’t happen again’ kind of moment.”

With the festival coming up in a couple of weeks, Fusca wanted to thank the community for their patience as the new board gets things settled.

“We’re extremely excited, and I'm just beyond grateful. My heart is super full.”