I have to say, our cats were not pleased with us at all this past month. After the both of us spending three weekends in a row out of town, they have been quite aggressively demanding attention out of us while we are around. The poor kids don’t know there are still more out of town trips to come. Not to mention the next several issues are going to be pretty darn busy as well, with Calgary Pride as an anchor for community events now being in September. I know, from our perspective at least, we are thankful to have things spread out a little more. It was enough of an overload with Pride Edmonton, Pride Lethbridge, and Pride Saskatoon – all of whom we sponsored – overlapping one another. With GayCalgary and Edmonton Magazine on board as a sponsor of Pride Calgary, and host of the Official Calgary Pride Guide, the additional strain this month would have been brutal.
Speaking of which, businesses wishing to have their advertising included as part of our Calgary Pride edition must submit ads on or before July 29th. Sponsors of Pride automatically receive advertising space in this edition. Visit www.pridecalgary.ca for more details.
We got so many good photos of events this month! It really is a shame we can’t publish them all – there just isn’t enough room – so make sure you visit the GayCalgary.com website to see additional photos and videos of the major events that we covered this month.
Leather Pride Weekend
Priape in association with the Calgary Eagle decided to host their own Leather Pride weekend at the beginning of the month to rally the fetish community. I attended the Mr. LeatherSIR and Mr. Leatherboy competition on the Saturday, videotaping and photographing on my own while Steve was in Edmonton for Prism’s bustling anniversary party.
The competition was similar to the annual Mr. Leather event, where contestants modeled leather gear and enacted fetish fantasy scenes. A number of queens from the ISCCA were present; Empress Bianca LaBouche wore a wig in honour of the television show I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here, which earned her the nickname of “Sanjaya LaBouche” for the night. Nina Tron took on the role as hostess for the evening, and seemed to hit it off with International LeatherSIR Raul Mendez. At one point she was brought up on stage for Mendez to demonstrate his whip, and he left some pretty nasty marks on Nina’s back…a small price to pay for being the envy of the room – Raul was certainly a looker!
I managed to make myself known to the out of town judges, including Raul, thanks to a slightly embarrassing situation. One of the contestants for Leatherboy enacted a scene where he carved the outline of a tattoo into his forearm using a razor blade, and this was way, way too much for me to handle. The sight (and sometimes even the thought) of blood causes a pretty intense reaction with me, like a flash fever that often results in me passing out briefly. I felt it coming on, and put the camera down in time before I slumped forward in my seat. I don’t think I was out for too long before someone checked to make sure I was okay, and brought me a glass of water. I was still pouring with sweat for a while afterward, and International Leatherboy Billy Hoeppner, who was sitting beside me, mused to Black Jack Pierce that he had never seen someone pass out at a leather event before. Wow did I feel foolish…but at least I know how to identify myself if I ever run into these Leather community celebrities again: “I’m the guy who passed out in Calgary.”
The end result was that Johnathan won as LeatherSIR, and David as Leatherboy, so we can be sure that Calgary will be well represented at the International LeatherSIR/Leatherboy competition.
Edmonton Pride Week
We covered this extensive festival over the course of two weekends: the first for the Parade and Street Festival, and the second for a number of the wrap-up events.
The turnout this year was just phenomenal, with a parade that lasted a healthy half hour, and a packed beer garden at Sir Winston Churchill Square that had a lengthy lineup to get in for most of the afternoon. It was beautifully sunny that day, and many people worked on their tans while watching the drag show on the main stage and getting hopelessly soused. Employees of this year’s title sponsor, TD Canada Trust, handed out Mardi Gras beads in their company colour – humorously with the heat and sweat, the beads left odd green rings around people’s necks.
MLA Lindsay Blackett was supposed to be present to make a speech to Pride attendees, but we were told he had cancelled at the last minute to be in Calgary for the grand opening of the new Crowfoot transit station. Another representative from the Conservative party attended in his place, but had to cut her speech short as the crowd booed, and picketers rushed in front of the stage to protest Blackett’s controversial Bill 44.
With the beer gardens being their main money-maker, Edmonton Pride opted not to hold a dance this year, leaving it open for the bars to hold their own after party events. There were so many unique Pride events throughout the week – like the Edmonton Queer History Bus Tour, Queer Images film festival, Edmonton Police Chief’s Pride Reception, and Mayor’s Pride Brunch - that we were simply unable to be in Edmonton for everything.
ARGRA Rodeo Weekend
Last year we had put off booking our RV for the rodeo weekend so late that we had to look beyond Calgary to find something that was available. What a godsend it was finding them. We used the same company out of Red Deer again this year and they delivered us a beautiful 5th wheel camper capable of sleeping 10! In that aspect, our camper was sorely underused, but it made for a comfortable camping experience – especially since us technology gurus had work to do, both for ourselves and for ARGRA.
The new rodeo location in Strathmore turned out even better than what was anticipated, and rodeo goers finally got to see what we were raving about months prior. The main camping area, easily twice the size of overflow in Symon’s Valley, was nearly full. This isn’t a worry because there are still additional fields surrounding the arena that can be used for campers as the event grows. On Saturday the grandstands and arena seating were full, and that night they sold 700 dinners, which their caterers were somehow able to accommodate despite only expecting 500! Liquor orders were doubled from last year, and still required restocking. We’re told that several Strathmore liquor vendors were cleared out of much of their product by campers. Many Strathmore residents chose to volunteer despite being offered payment for their time – some even donated back their tips! Though the official numbers are not in yet (give those poor ARGRA organizers a break!), it’s safe to say that the event was an overwhelming success, and the town of Strathmore welcomed the GLBT community with open arms. Though there were some minor glitches and oversights as a result of moving to the new venue, organizers are already in the process of collecting feedback on what they can concentrate on improving for next year.
The first GayCalgary and Edmonton Community Carnival got off to a good start, with 5 community organizations providing a myriad of carnival games to entertain spectators at the entrance to the rodeo grounds and beer garden. Organizations raised a moderate amount of money, but also accomplished a great deal of valuable networking and public face time.
Amy Darling of the Fairytales Film Fest, put herself out there to get pied in the face at their carnival game “Pie a Fairy”. Amy called out all sorts of creative taunts and reasons to pie a fairy…as I took photos, she cried, “If you’re taking pictures right now, you should pie a fairy! If your coverage includes both Calgary and Edmonton, you should pie a fairy!” So I did…and though I stayed a fair distance back, it was a direct hit (sorry)! Shortly afterward, one of the Calgary Police Officers from the Diversity Unit walked past minding her own business. Not to be discouraged by the cream pie all over her face, Amy called out, “If you have handcuffs and pretend they’re for your job, pie a fairy!”
I spent most of the weekend videotaping the rodeo from the upper tier of the grandstands. Despite the wonderful sunny weather, I was in the shade and at a choke point for the blowing wind to boot. I was almost shivering despite wearing my heavy jeans jacket. When I got the opportunity to pop out, people looked at me like I was crazy for wearing so much clothing. Most were shirtless and well on their way to looking like boiled lobsters (also resulting in some very nice cowboy scenery), so when I touched my icy cold hands to the backs of their necks (or other places when invited), they understood.
During our spare moments we scrambled to review the thousands of photos and hours of video footage that we had collected. We had the slide presentations together (just barely) in time for the Sunday award ceremony and Happy Trails dance that followed. It was very well received.
With nothing left to do but pack up our equipment after the dance, Steve and I finally had some time to decompress and have a few drinks in our RV. After last call, I returned to the dance venue to collect our equipment, and got a ride back to our campsite in a golf cart by one of the ARGRA board members who looked completely tapped out but satisfied after pulling off such an amazing weekend.
He gave us further compliments on the slideshow, and thanked us for our support of this year’s rodeo in general. Perhaps it was the exhaustion, but at that moment it slipped my mind that many ARGRA board members are urbanites just like us. I blurted out that this was the only way a pair of city boys like us knew how to contribute and participate in the making of an event like this. I mean, we don’t own or work on farms, we don’t know the first thing about riding horses…in hindsight, pretty lame examples. But his reply was, “I don’t either, but I do this because I still feel like I’m a cowboy on the inside.”
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