Michelle Fortin, director of the Vancouver Dyke March & Festival, anticipates the annual event’s seventh edition, taking place this weekend as part of Pride festivities.

Credit: Doug Shanks

VANCOUVER PRIDE: Dyke March ups women’s presence at Pride

By Jessica Barrett

Seven years ago, on the day before the city’s annual Pride Parade, about 200 lesbians and their supporters wended their way from East Vancouver’s Victoria Park to Grandview Park, in a show of solidarity and celebration.

Vancouver had previously played host to numerous lesbian marches and gatherings, but none have had the success and staying power of the event that was initiated that day in 2004, which soon became officially known as the Vancouver Dyke March & Festival. In the event’s second year, McSpadden Park became the official kick-off point for the March, allowing for a longer route to Grandview, where the festival portion of the event — featuring live entertainment and family-friendly activities — took place.

With Grandview Park closed this summer for renovations, this weekend’s Dyke March & Festival (July 31) will wind up at its original inception point in Victoria Park, a move board member Michelle Fortin welcomes as “going back to our roots.”

But Grandview will be welcoming a much larger group than it did in the beginning. Last year’s attendance totalled a whopping 4,000 people, Fortin happily reports, and this year’s crowd is expected to be larger.

While Vancouver’s Pride festivities can seem to be largely male-oriented, Fortin says, the steadily increasing attendance at the Dyke March & Festival indicates that a growing number of queer women and their supporters are making their presence felt, both as attendees and event organizers. Whereas just a few years ago women’s Pride events were few and far between, there are now at least three separate production companies in Vancouver — Crema, Flygirl, and Girlgig, as well as others — putting on parties for women during Pride.

But when it comes to lesbian-oriented events at other times of year, Vancouver seems stuck in a cycle of feast and famine, Fortin says. “Around Pride, there is just so much more to do than during the rest of the year. That frustrates me, personally, that suddenly the community comes out of the woodwork for this one weekend and then — I don’t know where everyone goes back to, but everyone kind of shows up for the weekend and then they disappear again.”

One reason for the poor showing the rest of the year, Fortin speculates, could be that more lesbian couples are inclined to have children than their gay male counterparts, meaning time and money are stretched just that much further. That’s certainly been the case within the Dyke March family, with the board seeing two of its members become new moms in the last year. “Last year they were pregnant, this year they have children, and that just means far less disposable income,” says Fortin.

The change has prompted Dyke March organizers to concentrate on organizing more family-friendly events throughout this coming year, specifically free or low-cost events geared toward lesbian-led families. “[We want to] create an opportunity for kids to be around other kids that have two moms,” she says.

And because everybody needs balance, the Dyke March is considering adding another adult-oriented fundraiser to its annual Diva’s Den strip show. “We’re also thinking of doing a ‘Naughty Elves’ [show] at the beginning of December, so we have a second fundraising event that’s attached to women and sexuality and having fun,” she adds.

The end goal is to provide as much choice for Vancouver’s lesbian community throughout the year as there is during Pride, says Fortin, who revels in the ability to have the best of both worlds this weekend. “It’s that both/and. I love the Pride parade and I love the Dyke March, and I don’t need to choose. This is about absolutely having as many choices as possible.”

reporter@westender.com