'Extremely excited for the comeback': Organizers, volunteers ready for return to in-person festivals this summer in Manitoba
When a rainbow flag is raised at Winnipeg City Hall Friday morning, it will signal the first in-person Pride Winnipeg Festival in three years.
When COVID-19 began to circulate in Manitoba in 2020, it unleashed a cacophony of restrictions, cancellations and postponements for the province’s beloved summer festival season. Many pivoted to virtual events, others scaled down and some offered attendees a hybrid model.
Back in 2020, Pride Winnipeg was preparing to host the second-ever national Fierté Canada Pride Festival. Organizers shifted gears to offer a virtual format when the virus set off a wave of lockdowns.
Jenn Rands, the festival’s vice-president of community engagement said the change presented a big challenge to staff, but was needed to offer its community some way to commemorate Pride Month.
“Pride celebrations started out as protests, a fight for equality and equity and equal rights. Today, the celebrations are just as important, just to remind us that we are in fact a community,” she said.
Thousand of Winnipeggers hit the streets Sunday for the annual Pride Winnipeg Rally and Parade. (Source: Daniel Timmerman/CTV Winnipeg)
Still, Rands said folks are eager to get back to an in-person event. Rands herself has been with Pride Winnipeg for three years, and this will mark her first in-person festival.
“Especially after going through the last two years of uncertainty, I really think this is going to be good for our community, just to get everybody back together,” she said.
ORGANIZERS NAVIGATE FLUCTUATING PANDEMIC LANDSCAPE
The Winnipeg Fringe Festival also traded in its live performances, snaking lineups and outdoor music, clowning and dance for a virtual model in 2020 and 2021.
Executive producer Chuck McEwen said a return to in-person in 2022 is welcome, but not without its challenges.
“I don't call it a post-COVID world. I call it a COVID-transition year,” he explained. “All along the planning stages, we've had to continue to adapt as things have developed. So, right now, I think we're in a good spot.”
Many festivals like the Fringe began planning last year at a time when COVID-19 restrictions were still in place. McEwen said international vaccine travel policies also influenced some out-of-country acts. It also spured the creation of the festival's own policy, requiring all indoor performers, volunteers and staff to be fully vaccinated.
Meanwhile, McEwen said the Fringe is in the midst of recruiting volunteers for the July festival, which is currently tracking slightly behind normal application levels. In 2019, the festival had just over 800 volunteers. This year, their goal is to sign up 500 to 600 folks eager to sell tickets, pass out programs and usher audiences.
"The festival is a bit smaller, so we won't need as many volunteers, but we would love to have our full complement, if at all possible," he said.
VOLUNTEERS EAGER TO WELCOME BACK AUDIENCES
After its own three-year pause, Folklorama executive director Teresa Cotroneo said the significance of this year’s festival has become increasingly apparent. She said many organizations behind its pavilions continue to grapple with the fallout from the pandemic.
“The number of pavilions people are used to seeing has decreased somewhat,” she said.
“A number of our ethnocultural communities are having a slower uptake when it comes to re-engaging their volunteers and haven't been able to bring in special guests or special talent from different countries that they actually use to put their pavilion together.”
READ MORE: Province announces funding to bolster Folklorama pavilions, lower some admission costs
Still, Cotroneo said as volunteers are hard at work preparing for this summer’s festival, the excitement is already palpable.
“They're extremely excited for the comeback,” she said. “It’s a long road to get to a festival. It's a year-round thing, and the volunteers who put in the work are tremendous. So for us to actually be able to get together in person and see that energy is exceptional.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Several flight attendants from Pakistan have gone missing after landing in Canada
Multiple flight attendants from Pakistan International Airlines have abandoned their jobs and are believed to have sought asylum in Canada in the past year and a half, a spokesperson for the government-owned airline says.
BREAKING Ottawa public school board, 3 Toronto-area school boards launch lawsuit against social media giants
The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board and three school boards in the Toronto-area have launched legal action against social media giants, accusing them of "disrupting students' fundamental right to education."
Doctors visiting a Gaza hospital are stunned by the war's toll on Palestinian children
An international team of doctors visiting a hospital in central Gaza was prepared for the worst. But the gruesome impact Israel’s war against Hamas is having on Palestinian children still left them stunned.
Crypt near Marilyn Monroe and Hugh Hefner could fetch US$400,000 at auction
A one-space mausoleum crypt in the vicinity of Marilyn Monroe and Hugh Hefner will go on auction Saturday, when it is expected to reach between US$200,000 and $400,000.
Tipping is off the table at this Toronto restaurant
A Toronto restaurant introduced a surprising new rule that reduced the cost of a meal and raised the salaries of staff.
A fight to protect the dignity of Michelangelo's David raises questions about freedom of expression
Michelangelo's David has been a towering figure in Italian culture since its completion in 1504. But in the current era of the quick buck, curators worry the marble statue's religious and political significance is being diminished.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Premiers not being truthful about carbon tax, Trudeau says while sparks fly in Ottawa
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Conservative premiers across the country are 'not telling the truth' when it comes to the carbon tax. Trudeau's comments came as fresh sparks were flying in Ottawa at a recalled House of Commons committee.
Far North police 'dispatch' polar bear stalking schoolyard
Police and local hunters in an Ontario Far North First Nation community have “dispatched” a polar that was showing abnormal behaviour and treating the area as a hunting ground.