Halifax Pride has begun preparations for the 2024 Halifax Pride Festival following the election of a new board of directors at their Annual General Meeting in October.
With the cancellation of last summer’s Pride Parade and a significantly reduced scale festival in 2023, a number of concerned community leaders and former staff members decided to stand together for election at the AGM in October 2023.
This nine person group includes previous staff members such as former Executive DIrector, Adam Reid, and community leaders such as Kay MacDonald and Carmel Farahbakhsh, Executive Director of The Youth Project, who join three members continuing their term from 2023.
The new board’s first act was to engage previous full time Operations Manager, Fiona Kerr, to return to her former role on an interim basis. Fiona will work to engage community partners, secure grant and sponsorship funding, and re-establish the Society’s public communications.
“I’m incredibly optimistic for the 2024 festival” said Kerr, “We knew it would be a lot of work to stabilize after 2023, but community partners are excited to re-engage with Pride. This is a crucial time for our community to be able to gather, and we can’t wait to give folks that opportunity again next summer. ”
Halifax Pride is currently working to reach out to 2023 parade registrants to offer refunds for the canceled parade, and have begun work to develop a festival schedule that includes many of the events the community knows and loves.
“We are looking forward to the return of the parade and the celebration of the entire festival,” said Hayden O’Malley, newly elected Board Member. “Pride has gone through changes like this before, and was better for it, so our current board is hopeful and enthusiastic about the work we are doing.”
Halifax Pride will host a virtual community meeting on Thursday, December 14th at 6:30PM. There is no pre-registration; this is the Zoom link. All are welcome to attend to hear more about the work the board and contract staff have begun, preliminary festival plans, and organizational updates.
The 2024 Halifax Pride Festival is set to run from July 18-28, 2024. For more information about Halifax Pride please visit halifaxpride.com.
