June, 2016, GayCalgary Magazine celebrates its 150th edition. This is a pretty big milestone when it comes to LGBT Publications in Canada. Running the magazine for this many editions is not easy, but it does help having some great writers and amazing editor plus, when I am in a crunch, Rob does help with other tasks. Sadly, all the other tasks, too many to be named, do need to be done by me.
It surprises me still how much content has come together to produce 150 editions. There are about 5,500 articles that have been written, plus about 135,000 photos in the online GayCalgary photo gallery, with about 250,000 waiting still to go online. The magazine also has about 20,200 digital subscribers, which is pretty impressive. We still have over 300,000 readers per month spending on average 25 minutes on the site.
After doing 150 editions of the magazine, one would assume that eventually it would get easier, but this one, especially, went sideways on me. I started planning the 150th edition at the start of the year, but just about everything changed on me in the middle of May. It felt like a cascade of things were creating challenges barring things coming together.
In May, even though none of my writers were directly impacted by the fires in Fort McMurray, there was a trickle down effect; everyone was watching the news to see what the current status was, or going out to help friends and family that were impacted by the fire. The planned interviews with the mayors of Edmonton and Calgary needed to be pushed from the 150th Edition to the July edition due to their constantly changing schedules. Interviews with talent for RuPaul’s Battle of the Seasons were also not coming together easily, since it was a little hard to do interviews while they were on tour.
The plan was to celebrate the 150th edition as part of the Canadian International Rodeo and Music Festival weekend, but when Alberta Rockies Gay Rodeo Association (ARGRA) cancelled the event, things changed. We lost all those interviews of performers that were part of the music festival and the exposure of the anniversary edition. More about ARGRA later on in this article.
So our 150th edition is still something special – regardless if it came together the way I wanted it to – but that is the joy of being media in our ever-changing gay community. As long as each edition makes it way out, that is something to celebrate.
Alberta Rockies Gay Rodeo Association
In May, ARGRA announced that they were cancelling the Canadian Rockies International Rodeo and Music Festival 2016 event. The announcement shook the gay community. ARGRA is a unique group in Canada. With Calgary being in cowboy country, it only made sense that Calgary would be the home of the only gay rodeo in Canada. This year would have marked their 23rd run, so it was a shock that a regular summer event was no longer happening. The rodeo and music festival was seen as the small gay version of the Calgary Stampede.
When Pride happens, the festival, parade and dance usually occur on one day, at several different locations. The rodeo usually started on a Thursday or Friday and ran until Sunday night. ARGRA had areas set up for camping/RV, rodeo arena, dance hall, beer gardens, retail and the new music festival area. This way people did not need to travel far to go to different events throughout the day.
There was always the rodeo during Saturday and Sunday starting 8:30am, and it ran until 5 or 6 in the afternoon, depending on how many contestants and if there were any injuries. Late at night, once everything else shut down, the dances would start. Since people were camping just outside the entrance to all the events, they could sit back, drink, socialize and take part of all the ARGRA events that they were interested in, in ease. ARGRA created something that brought people back year after year, where you could make new friends, and embrace a sense of family. Attendees came from around the world so, many times, it was the only chance you would get to see them.
Outside their rodeo weekend, members of ARGRA were present at just about every gay event throughout the province. You just looked for the group of people wearing their cowboy hats and you knew that ARGRA was in the room. They wanted to show their support in many ways, including fundraisers, dances, sports, annual general meetings and more. They were there to protect other nonprofit groups when outsiders wanted to bully their way in. They were also there when other nonprofit groups stumbled and needed a strong, helping hand and guidance.
After running as long as ARGRA has, maybe it is their turn to get a helping hand from the community, as they have lent to everyone else. When it was posted that the rodeo was cancelled, it was visible on Facebook that the help and support was there to, conceivably, bring them back.
Things have not been easy for them for several years now: from moving the venue from inside the Calgary city limits to the town of Strathmore, to a tornado that hit close to the venue; to the rains that flooded Calgary the week before the rodeo happened so volunteers and organizers were stuck trying the put on an event and deal with friends and family caught in the flood; to the current poor economy. It is not easy for an outdoor event to endure something out of their control year after year. The ARGRA board and volunteers tried to put on a brave face, smiled, and persevered in keeping the event running year after year.
ARGRA tried to change with the times, as most groups have had to, making them more mainstream: adding things like a music festival in the beer gardens, then expanding it to be a three-day evening event. They also introduced a community carnival to allow other nonprofit groups to fundraise using traditional amusement park attractions like a dunk tank or bake sale. These measures increased attendance from people who lived in Strathmore, and made it easier to get sponsors that would usually only sponsor gay pride events.
When GayCalgary reached out to the board for further information about what is going on, they were unable to comment. We did make sure they understand that the community is here for them as ARGRA was for them. At this point we don’t know if ARGRA will reboot as something new, or if it will it be gone for good. The board and members are still a strong part of what makes Alberta’s LGBTQ community. They won’t be able to talk about any of it, so maybe give them a hug, or buy them a drink or two, since the decision they made was not an easy one. These people who volunteered their time for ARGRA are instrumental to what we have as a community.
Upcoming Events
July is a busy month in general, with Edmonton Pride running from June 3rd to 12th. There is also Lethbridge Pride from June 1st to June 29th. Check out the ads we are running for the main events, plus some of the other side events like Pure Pride, Bears in the Park BBQ, Pride in Fashion, and more! The word is that Backwards is finally going to open before the end of the month, so check out their Facebook page for details.