Quebec City celebrates Pride

Fête Arc-en-Ciel attracts thousands to end-of-summer rainbow party

By Ruby Pratka • September 3, 2013 2:50 pm EDT

Festival director Olivier Poulin says Fête Arc-en-Ciel is now a fixture in Quebec City. Credit: Ruby Pratka

As summer draws to a close, so does Pride season — but that’s no reason not to enjoy the last festivals.

Quebec City’s ninth annual Pride — known as Fête Arc-en-Ciel in French, literally Rainbow Party — ran from Aug 29 to Sept 2.

Organizers had hoped to improve on last year’s record of 15,000 attendees.

“With time, we’ve managed to make the Fête Arc-en-Ciel a fixture in Quebec [City]’s summer calendar,” festival director Olivier Poulin says. “We see that in the increase in attendance, as much with people from the region as with tourists.”

Check out Xtra‘s coverage on the evolution of Pride events in Canada. From Brockville to Lethbridge, smaller festivals have been popping up across the country.

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Ruby Pratka is a freelance journalist based in Montreal. She filed her first stories for Xtra as a 19-year-old Carleton University undergrad, way back when the office was located on Kent St in Ottawa. Since then, she has lived, worked and studied in Russia, Slovenia, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Italy and Burundi. She lived in Kelowna, Winnipeg and Quebec City before deciding on Montreal. She is a queer woman who has never cared much for gender conformity. She most enjoys reporting on immigration and refugee rights as well as housing and food security issues. Her writing has appeared in English and French in Vice Québec, HuffPost Québec, Ricochet, Shareable and the Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph, among others. She enjoys cooking and choral singing.

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