Western, Canada 

Alberta, home to over four million Canadians, is blessed with the rugged mountain peaks of the Canadian Rockies, sparkling modern cities with state-of-the-art transportation and communication systems, as well as fully developed tourism infrastructures, which are convenient starting points for amazing natural, sporting and cultural adventures.

The LGBTQ+ community is open and visible in Alberta, with celebrations in major centres like Calgary and Edmonton, but also in smaller urban areas and mountain resorts, such Jasper, Lethbridge, Red Deer and Banff, all of which have installed rainbow crosswalks in recent years in celebration of Pride.

Calgary

Calgary, the biggest city in Alberta, has hosted a Winter Olympics, and is known around the world for its yearly rodeo festival, The Calgary Stampede. Calgary is the home of Canada's oil industry, and a rising high tech sector is adding to the downtown core of impressive modern skyscrapers, with a young, diverse working population.

Calgary is also where Mark Tewksbury lives, Olympic Gold Medalist in the 100-metre backstroke at the 1992 Summer Olympics. Mark was the first Canadian Olympian to openly identify as gay, and now he is a motivational speaker and co-founder of Great Traits, a professional development company that offers high-performance applied leadership training in Toronto and Calgary.

In 2024, the Calgary Queer Arts Society is celebrating twenty six years since the launch of the Fairy Tales Queer Film Festival in 1999, as well as their later projects such as the OUTReels Diversity Education Program, Youth Queer Media Program, The Coming Out Monologues, and six years since the Fairy Tales Queer Presentation Society became the Calgary Queer Arts Society.

Calgary Pride will mark its 34th year in 2024, and although the dates were not confirmed at press time, it usually happens in the last week of August, extending into September when needed. Check the Calgary Pride web site to verify dates for 2024, as well as their ongoing year-round calendar of events.

Resources: 

exploreedmonton.com
edmontonpridefest.com
pridecentreofedmonton.ca
www.travelalberta.com
www.visitcalgary.com
www.calgarypride.ca
www.calgaryqueerartssociety.com