Cultural Festivals

You might not want to wear white to the WetSpot party, this year’s Pride wrap-up event (July 28, 10pm-2am, Garrison Grounds, $16 advance tickets, $20 at the gate). “Rumour has it there’s going to be a lot of Super Soakers around,” hints Pride Week festival chair Krista Snow mysteriously. Snow hopes to bust some misconceptions […]

On July 27, as proud and powerful people pump up the jams at Halifax Pride’s OutDancing event at the Garrison Grounds, a proud and powerful woman will be taking to the Casino Nova Scotia stage, down the street, to celebrate Halifax’s true colours. Cyndi Lauper is coming to town. Lauper is a very big deal. […]

Early on the morning of April 17, 2012, Raymond Taavel and a friend were leaving Menz Bar on Gottingen Street when Taavel’s friend was suddenly attacked and thrown against the building. Raymond intervened, at which point he was thrown to the sidewalk and beaten to death. He was 49. That evening, a thousand people congregated […]

Young Kaii From Providence, Rhode Island, rising hip-hop star Young Kaii is taking steps to change the rap game. As a woman in a male-dominated industry, Young Kaii says she has to work harder but doesn’t make compromises. Staying independent, Young Kaii creates art freely for herself and those who enjoy it. Inspired by east […]

On Saturday, tens of thousands of folks will enjoy the 25th Halifax Pride Parade. The parade and the week of events around it are listed in tourist guides. It will be broadcast live on TV. Banks and governments and businesses will have floats. I won’t be there. Back in 1987, the date thought of as […]

For the tens of thousands of people who will congregate in the streets of Halifax this upcoming weekend, Pride will seem like a colourful celebration of sexual diversity. But in 1988, there weren’t throngs of people lining the streets to watch and cheer. It was a political march, where close to 100 people—some hiding their identities by […]

Halifax’s annual pride parade started in 1987, when a brave group, some wearing bags over their heads, walked through downtown. In the quarter century since, the parade has grown into a week-plus series of events, and a celebratory mood has come to define the community-wide festival. See our complete coverage of Pride 2012, here.

Sometimes an interviewer has to work very hard to draw information from the subjects of a story. It can require the sensitivity of a therapist, the easygoing ways of a best friend and the analytical focus of a detective. Well, that’s certainly not the case for this story. It seems that when you get Hugo Dann, […]