By Don Urquhart, Times Chronicle
A gorgeous summer-like day spread the warmth of the sun and a whole lotta love on Osoyoos’ first inaugural Pride Arts Festival on September 24.
In kicking off the event Saturday morning with a land acknowledgement to the Syilx Okanagan Nation, Keisha Mclean from South Okanagan Similkameen Pride Society (SOS Pride) invited everyone to think about how they honour the land and what their relationship is with the land.
Osoyoos’ first Pride Arts Festival kicks off Saturday
It is important she said, “so that we can be in a good way with our siblings, with each other as we celebrate all of the ways folks can live really good, juicy, dignified lives here together.”
Osoyoos Mayor Sue McKortoff thanked SOS Pride and the local Wide Arts National Association (WANA) and its president Wina Poliquin for making the event a reality. Efforts to have a Pride Festival in Osoyoos have encountered various challenges in the past.
McKortoff noted the festival “highlights diversity, inclusion and equity in our communities and that’s really important.”
“Thank you all, you’ve done a great job – I’m not sure how you chose today but it couldn’t be any better,” she said noting the absence of wind and the abundance of warm sunshine and blue skies.
Mclean noted that the Pride Arts Festival got its start when Poliquin pitched the idea to SOS Pride. “The idea with Pride Arts is to use an equitable and inclusive framework to promote diversity in both 2SLGBTQIA+ communities, as well as black and racialized communities. We’re here as a community and there is so much love here!” she added.
Speaking with Mclean and her fellow master of ceremonies Humaira Hamid on the sidelines of the event Mclean pauses and says: “I’’m feeling chills listening to this youth performer, she’s so talented!” referring to 16-year old Kai Allen from Oliver who was onstage singing and playing acoustic guitar.
“It’s interesting to see how many people in our community are so talented and who haven’t been given a lot of stage time,” adding that all the artists in the substantial line up at the event are from the Okanagan. Mclean said they are aiming to do more with youth artists in the future.
“It’s a fantastic day, it’s lovely to see folks out with their kiddos and all of the vendors that have chosen to come out today,” added Hamid.
Both expressed their happiness with the turnout: “I think it’s a pretty great crowd considering people are doing a lot of things – they’re in the market area, they’re eating, they’re watching – there’s a lot going on and it seems to be a pretty great turn out.”
The other thing people were doing was enjoying a specially brewed beer for the day, the product of a cooperative effort from the Firehall Brewery in Oliver and Osoyoos’ North Basin Brewery.
North Basin brewmaster Kody Rosentreter explained the beer he and Firehall’s Syd Ruhland settled on was a California Common beer which they aptly named “Progress”.
Rosentreter says he did a bit of research and discovered that this style of beer was popular around the same time as the Pride Movement was gathering strength in the late 60’s and early 70’s. “I thought it was an interesting coincidence of two unrelated things,” he said.
As for the beer, he notes that you don’t see a lot of California Commons beer around anymore. He describes the Progress beer which was available at the festival and in the taprooms of both breweries, as a “malty, easy drinking ale-lager kind of thing,” adding that it straddles the two beer types. “It’s an easy drink like a lager but brewed like an ale,” he says.
Meanwhile speaking to Tristan Boisvert who is originally from the Lower Similkameen on the unceded territory of the Syilx Okanagan People, he expressed his delight around this inaugural festival. Boisvert is a director on the SOS Pride board and also a performing artists. “I’ll be doing some poetry, some spoken word and I decided to dress up as a rodeo clown,” he laughs as he awaits his slot on stage.
“Poetry for me is a way to deal with a lot of mental health issues so it was my creative outlet to navigate a lot of difficult times. Having growing up as a queer person in a small conservative community between Osoyoos and Keremeos without really having seen this type of representation before when i was growing up, the fact that I can be that representation for other kids that are maybe struggling, is a big motivator,” he says.
As for the Osoyoos event, Boisvert says it’s long overdue and “the fact that it’s happening and it’s supported by the town of Osoyoos goes a long ways to show how quickly things have moved in recent years.”
“And the fact that this is just a nice kind of relaxing awesome event and it’s open to all ages was the key to making it a success. I know a lot of hard work went into it to make it happen,” he added.
