The City of Lethbridge will have its own Pride Festival, now for a second year, running from June 13th to the 20th. Heather Chomos, Chair of the organization, could not be more excited about it.
“New and old sponsors have really stepped in to help us create and provide the best experience for everyone!”
She credits these sponsors for the success of last year’s Pride Festival and the pending success of the current one.
“Our sponsors have been very generous, from some very large, personal donations to our wonderful corporate sponsors!  GayCalgary and Edmonton Magazine as always has been extremely generous and has donated web and magazine space to us. They are our Premier and sole media sponsor. We have very generous donations from Barefoot Wine and Bubbly and GALA/LA. We value all of our sponsors, including the YMCA Lethbridge, Lethbridge Toyota, Starbucks, and Select Recruiting and Teamworks. We’ve been very fortunate to have so many people and organizations step up to sponsor us in the past, and have continued to work with us this year.”
The week of festival is chalked full of Pride events, starting on June 14th with a Wine Tasting event by Barefoot Wine and Bubbly. It takes place at Mocha Casablanca, starting at 6:30. Tickets are $20.00 and will be available in the near future.  (All ticket information will be available on the Lethbridge Pride Festival website.)
Switching form wine tasting to sports, The YMCA is holding Play with Pride, Sports and Activity Night on Wednesday, June 16th.  Starting at 6:20pm, the evening events range from sports of all kind (with all equipment readily available) to air hockey and cards.  
Pride weekend in Lethbridge begins on Friday, June 18th, with the second annual Flag Raising at City Hall, where the flag will remain throughout the weekend’s festivities. This will begin at 6:30, accompanied by speeches.  Immediately following there will be Queeraoke, Lethbridge Pride’s version of karaoke at The Mix, by Ric’s Grill
Saturday’s events include the Bob Kosta Memorial Pride Barbeque at noon in Pavan Park, in memory of a long time supporter and ally to the community, who passed away shortly after last year’s Pride events.
Later that evening is the official Pride Dance with performances by Malibu Stacey, Kris Kollins, and others. The event venue will be announced shortly, and tickets are $10.00 each.
Rounding out Lethbridge Pride Week, there will be a Pride and faith service at 11:30am, with a brunch following at 12:30pm.
GALA: Out in the Park, at Galt Gardens will be Lethbridge Pride’s final event.  It runs from 2-6pm and is an all ages, alcohol free event. There will be a list of acts present, including Killiane, to entertain the crowds. Additional performers will be listed on the website.
In its premier event in 2009, Pride Lethbridge welcomed nearly 1000 guests. This year they hope to see even more come out!