PHOTOS: Ten days of Pride in Peterborough-Nogojiwanong

About ten participants gathered to bead pronoun pins during an Indigiqueer beading session as part of the 2024 Peterborough-Nogojiwanong Pride Week celebrations. (Photo: Will Pearson)

Peterborough-Nogojiwanong celebrated its Pride Week from September 20 to 29, 2024, with almost 40 different events — most of them organized by individuals in the community.

“We basically make space for the community to step up, and that way we also get something for everybody,” said Rick Lambert of the Pride organizing committee. “People of all different identities and intersections tailor events to their friends or people like themselves, so the result is like going to a potluck of events for the week.”

The diversity of Peterborough’s queer community was highlighted through the wide range of event offerings, including a Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer gathering, a virtual drop-in for youth, a Trans march, a drag ecology hike, a disabled queer writers group, an event focused on supporting queer folks as they age, and many more.

Lambert describes the number of events that materialized for Pride Week this year as “a little bit extreme.” He said that the Pride committee plans to support several of the individual organizers in running their events year-round to take some pressure off of Pride Week moving forward.

“The really good thing is that all of the people who are running events are volunteers, and a bunch of people have already said they want to do this monthly or semi-monthly. We do have some money still in the budget to help with that,” Lambert said. “It will be good to spread events out so everything isn’t just concentrated in ten days.”

Peterborough Currents attended as many of the Pride events as we could. This photo gallery shares what Pride Week looked like to us.

Peterborough’s poet laureate Ziysah von Bieberstein speaks during the Pride Week opening ceremonies on September 20. (Photo: Will Pearson)

Mayor Jeff Leal and Pride committee member Rick Lambert raise the pride flag on September 20. (Photo: Will Pearson)

Zwena Gray leads participants through Jackson Park during a drag ecology walk on September 22. (Photo: Will Pearson)

Drag artist Magnolia Knox shares their knowledge of local flora during the drag ecology walk. (Photo: Will Pearson)

Vendors Astrid and Russell at the Queer Maker Market at Dreams of Beans Café on September 22. (Photo: Will Pearson)

Vendor Youshra Zara chats with a customer at the Queer Maker Market. (Photo: Will Pearson)

Pride Euchre organizer Barry Boyce watches tricks unfold during the annual card-playing event at Dreams of Beans Café on September 24. (Photo: Will Pearson)

Cyclists cross the Birdsall Street bridge during the P(RIDE) glow ride that attracted dozens of bike riders. (Photo: Will Pearson)

Doing donuts in a parking lot during the P(RIDE) glow ride event on September 21. (Photo: Will Pearson)

Making pronoun pins at the Indigiqueer beading event on September 24. (Photo: Will Pearson)

A group of queer and disabled writers imagined new worlds together at the Queer Crips on Paper event at PARN on September 26. (Photo: Alex Karn)

Ms. Madge Enthat hosted the Peterborough Poetry Slam’s Pride and Poetry event on September 26. (Photo: Will Pearson)

Clementine Robertson reads a poem to about fifty people at the Peterborough Poetry Slam’s open mic event at Dreams Beans of Beans Café. (Photo: Will Pearson)

Pride committee member Drew Whatman (right) speaks to attendees at the Trans Day of Resiliency event on September 27. (Photo: Alex Karn)

Collin Chepeka hosted a Bi+ Trivia Night at Revelstoke Café on September 27. (Photo: Mark McNeilly)

Betty Baker celebrated three years of performing Drag Story Time at the Peterborough Public Library on September 28. (Photo: Luke Best)

Pride Week culminated with a downtown parade on September 28 that drew hundreds of people. (Photo: Will Pearson)

The parade’s destination was Millennium Park, where the festivities continued all afternoon. (Photo: Will Pearson)

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