Medicine Hat is about to kick off Pride week for the third year in a row. When we called up Jason Johnson, the current chairperson for the event, he was very enthused about the events set to take place. It is young for a Pride festival – seeing inception in September, 2012 – but it has had a very strong start. Johnson has overseen its steady growth, and this year the event hopes to provide more for the community than it has previously. Historically the event has mainly taken place over one day and night.

"We get about 1,500 [attendees] through the park every year, and then on average about 400 to 600 through the Pride dance," Johnson said. Participation, however, has been steadily growing. It has allowed the planning committee to arrange a couple of new events, which are smaller, but will help to kick off their Pride Week.

On Sunday, September 14th, they will introduce the Medicine Hat Pride Golf Fun Day, which they expect to be a small but fun gathering that will help get everyone excited for the main festivities on the following Saturday. Not only is golfing on the schedule, the barbecue dinner to follow is sure to please.

The LGBT movie night, hosted by the Medicine Hat Public Library, will be a similar experience. A quieter affair than the festival itself, but no less enjoyable.

The Pride celebration aims to bring together and foster a community. "Our goals are to bring awareness and to just kind of celebrate diversity in Medicine Hat, and to create that social outlet that smaller communities kind of lack," Johnson says.

It may be a smaller community, but the spirit is large. The Pride organizers readily take suggestions and ideas from the community. Most of their events are not the brainchild of the organization, but rather of the participants.

"The golf day came from community suggestion; the movie night was community suggestion. We do an annual St Patrick’s Day dance, and that was also a suggestion. So I’d say quite a few of them!" confirms Johnson.

Pride is seeing an increase in local sponsorship each year it goes on as well, which will hopefully allow them to further their Pride celebrations for upcoming years. Growth is the name of their game.

"We are basically an events-based organization at this point, similar to Edmonton Pride and Calgary Pride. I think just growing the week-long festival that we have, maybe add a few other events throughout the year," he states as their goals. "We’re really looking to the community to bring that forward and contribute what they would like to see and, you know, to build up the festival itself. Maybe bring in bigger name acts; just have the event be a little bit more of a draw for Southern Alberta."