By Lexi McFarlane, Times Chronicle

Festival organizers are seeking to bring awareness to incidents of hate against the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, following a pair of incidents during the early hours of the 4th annual Pride Arts Festival held on Saturday, Sept. 6.

In a statement the organizers said they encountered “homophobic & transphobic harassment,” which “affirms the importance of this landmark event, which provides a platform for culturally underrepresented creatives to showcase their work and fully participate in community.”

The initial incident occurred when a person entered the vendors’ space during the morning portion of the festival. Speaking to the Times Chronicle, South Okanagan Similkameen (SOS) Pride artist coordinator Keisha McLean says while the person approached one vendor specifically, their actions were disruptive to the whole space.

“(The person) was… speaking loudly, and made really awful comments about the queer community,” McLean stated, “(accusing them of) being inappropriate with minors, and some extremely explicit things.”

The matter was dealt with in an appropriate manner, but it is the first time in the festival’s four-year history their security team, Hubdal Protection Services, had to get involved to an extent like they did.

“We are extremely thankful for our security team,” McLean said. “This is the first year they’ve had to actually remove somebody, but they followed our safety plan and approached the individual, de-escalated the situation, and removed the individual.”

The second incident occurred later on in the morning, during the Pride March, and involved more than one person being offensive.

“During that (march), there were hecklers and people using homophobic and transphobic slurs,” McLean said. “And saying, again… horrific, inaccurate things to the people on the march.

“Those were the two biggest points of conflict.”

Security was also involved during the Pride March. Since RCMP is only used by festival organizers as a last resort, and given HPS was able to deal with both incidents, RCMP did not have to be called in.

The rest of the event, following the Pride March, went on without any further disturbance. McLean notes that many people stuck around for the full duration of the event, despite the undesirable start.

“Despite the harassment that was experienced at the beginning of the day, the vendors were very kind and our committee was responsive. We provided support for people who were impacted by the negativity and the harassment directly.”

Outside of those incidents, the festival was successful yet again.

“It was a really, really beautiful day. The performances were absolutely incredible, the calibre of entertainment was just breathtaking.”

The message of Pride events has always been rooted in protest, and to raise awareness of hate against the 2SLGBTQIA+ community and encourage prevention. Experiences like the two incidents Sunday morning are proof of why that has been a major part of what Pride events are about.

“As much as this is such an awful thing to have happened at our festival, it also builds a platform to raise awareness about something that’s happening to a lot of people every day,” McLean says.

“(This) affirms our belief that Pride is a protest, and has always been one. We are reminded of this in moments when our neighbours speak in ignorance and in hate.”

In its statement the festival organizers also highlighted that, “In each of us stands our ancestors, the generations of people who fought tirelessly to challenge hateful narratives and create profound change.

“As we endure the weight and suffering of the alt-right campaign, we remain grounded in one steady and consistent truth: love prevails.”

The statement also reminded people that they “do not tolerate abusive or disrespectful language, or physical conduct that reinforces social structures of domination”.

It also thanked attendees “who showed up in love, in compassion, in resistance, and in protest” against hate.

If you have been directly impacted by the harmful actions of these individuals at the 2025 Pride Arts Festival, please consider reaching out to [email protected] for probono, trauma informed and culturally responsive support.