Crisis ices over – Pride skates back to festival plaza

Organizers vow to host party around the construction

Capital Pride vows to return to the lawn in front of city hall – sharing space with construction work.

Doug Saunders-Riggins, chair of the Capital Pride Committee, says that after seeing construction plans for the Rink of Dreams at a meeting with city hall officials, they decided that there would be ample room for the festival to go ahead as planned.

“It’s just a question of layout now. We just need to figure out where we are going to put the stage, where we are going to put the info fair and the beer tent,” says Saunders-Riggins.

The construction area will be set off from the festival plaza by a diagonal pathway. Construction will be carried out on the canal side of the plaza; the festival site will be on the courthouse side.

“The festival grounds will have a different look to them this year. It will be a little more segmented,” says Saunders-Riggins. “We are looking to put the stage to the Lisgar side because it might be more space for viewing… Then we are also going to have stuff inside city hall.”

Saunders-Riggins says that the parade will not be greatly altered because of the new arrangement.

“The parade route will be a little extended. It may go down Elgin St a bit more,” he says.

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