Pride Cabana Pool Party

Posted Thu, 25 Jun 2015, 12:18pm by Ian Watson

Over 1,300 people came out to celebrate Pride at the first annual Pride Cabana Pool Party.  What goes into making it all happen?

Op-Ed: A message from the Event Producer…

Ian Watson - One of the great things about being involved with so many different groups is how amazing things can come out of simple off the cuff conversations.
On Wednesday of Pride Week in Toronto, we saw the results of how by sharing ideas, great things happen.

Among many hats that I wear (anyone who knows me, knows it’s rare to see me without a hat on… it happens, but not often), I’m the Executive Director of Pride Ontario, a new organization, still in the early stages of forming and organizing (which is why you haven’t really heard of the organization yet, but you will).

Through conversations with one of our consultants, he mentioned that INK Entertainment was looking for a way to get involved with the LGBT Community. Wasn’t the right fit for Pride Ontario, yet anyway, BUT I also happen to be a Member Services Rep for OutSport Toronto, and with a pool and a great space, Cabana Pool Bar would be an amazing space to bring Toronto’s LGBT Sporting community together.

I floated the idea past a couple members of the board, and they were in. What an amazing opportunity to work with one of Toronto’s largest entertainment companies to develop a unique event to bring people together, and during the PanAm Games year to boot!!

Well, the PanAm Games is also the theme for Pride Toronto.

Historically, Pride Toronto and OutSport Toronto have worked together to create unique opportunities for highlighting LGBT sports in the area during Pride. This year Mathieu Chantelois, the new Executive Director of Pride Toronto, wanted to make a big splashy semi-sports themed event TOGETHER, instead of just putting ours on their calendar. So he approached us with a date and desire, and OutSport was able to say “hey, we’ve got just the event we’re already working on, why don’t we pull the date back to during Pride, and make it even more awesome?”.

With a shortened timeline, the Pride Cabana Pool Party was pulled together in just a couple short months. It took a lot of fast work from a number of different people and organizations to move so quickly.

The end result, the Pride week in Toronto gave birth to its newest major event. The Community responded and showed us we made the right call.

What Pride Means (To Me At Least)

Pride got its start as a protest. Often violent in the early years, while the LGBT community mobilized and stood up against an oppressive society and laws. Over time it became a political protest march, then eventually into a celebratory festival.

Still continually evolving, today Pride is a celebration of adversity overcome, a stand in defiance of adversity still to be overcome. Pride is so much more than just a series of parties. We have parties all year long. What makes Pride unique is “Pride”. Pride in ourselves, Pride in our Community. It’s the one time a year where the entire community really comes together and celebrates as one. Demonstrating support for each other, and all our community’s different segments and sub-segments. It’s a feeling, and a life force unto itself. It’s so much more than just a festival.

Community is 365

The events that I personally produce, it’s this core feeling of community that’s of critical importance. I don’t always hit the mark, and have to go back and rejig things. But for the first year of the Pride Cabana Pool Party, I think working together, we got pretty close.

It was so refreshing to see an event with such a diverse crowd of people in one place, having fun together. Stereotypes, and inter-community discrimination was left at the gate. Inside everyone from all cross-sections of the community, along with a number of our allies, celebrated together.

We caught a serious break with the weather. That was a huge help. No point pretending otherwise.

People Make Pride Happen

"Help make Pride happen" is a slogan used by Pride organizations all over the world when trying to recruit volunteers. I wonder though how many people really understand what it means? You may think it’s just about volunteering to help make a festival happen. But it’s so much more. It’s about contributing to the greater community, and helping to create a safe and supportive environment for the community to celebrate together.

Contrary to popular belief, events don’t just happen. Hundreds of collective work hours went into making just Pride Cabana Pool Party happen.

What made our event Wednesday night work; the attention to detail, and the collective contributions of EVERYONE involved.

It’s the Volunteers

It's people like you, who graciously give their time, energy, talents, and often emotions, that make "Pride" happen. Creating that environment for others to bond and grow.

Wednesday night wasn't "just a party". Prism's Aqua is just a party. (And a super amazing fun one that I plan to be at, not slagging here). But ours was so much more. You could feel it. You could see it. The diversity of the crowd, so many segments of the population coming together.

I regret that I didn't get much time to visit many of the many volunteers. I apologize for that. But this is a compliment as well… The hard work and dedication of our volunteers helped keep things running smooth, and allowed me to focus on other tasks. If I as the event producer am not hovering over you, it means you have my undying thanks and praise, as I don’t NEED to be there to take care of the task you’re doing. Still though, I wish I had personally said thank you to every one of you in person.

To the Pride Toronto volunteers, sitting at the front gate, I'm so sorry I don't even have all your names, so I’m lumping you into this impersonal group, but you all know who you are. You guys did amazing!! Welcoming everyone, and keeping a pleasant smile on your face despite the long hours and few bitchy guests. It's not an easy job. You’re always going to get a few guests who just want to complain and give you a hard time. It’s one thing when you’re being paid, it’s quite another when you’re freely giving of your time. But you did it with style and Pride. You didn’t allow those small few to affect your outward energy, and the hundreds more guests who followed were greeted with a smile on your face.

This meant guests arrived at the top of the ramp with smiles on their faces and excitement in their eyes... Ready to have fun. You put them in that mood. And THAT'S what makes an event successful. That first arrival experience. And that was all you!

As an event producer, my personal biggest concern is that front, first impression. Making sure people get in quickly. People are not having fun in line. (I’ve never understood line holds). We want them inside FAST. You guys took care of that. A huge weight off my shoulders not having to constantly check-in with the front. You don't get thanked and recognized enough.

To Sachil & Ben, who just took care of coordinating the front gate, managing the volunteers, making the payment systems work, and ensuring the gate ran smooth and quick.

To the OutSport Toronto Volunteers at the front, giving your time to help speed the process, and also help give OST some interactive representation. So often the work we do at OST is behind the scenes. Wednesday night the community saw us actively engaged. It was good.

To Yanick and Darin, who took care of the talent, made sure shows ran smooth, and the talent was taken care of so I didn't have to do it. Long hours with so many little details to attend to. You did it with flying colours.

We had a slight scheduling snafu earlier in the day which put a sever time pressure on getting the event open in time. Jeremy Smith, one of my staff at Pride Ontario, at the last minute, stepped up, battled transit, traffic, and finally just walked to show up early to lend an extra hand.

Events don’t work without guests…

Over 1,300 people came out to help us make the event so successful. By simply coming out and showing your support of the event, the organizations, and contributing to a fun and celebratory environment, you give value to the work of all the volunteers, and help build our community.

The Dollars

INK Entertainment, and Cabana Pool Bar in particular, were extremely supportive, slashing normal venue rental rates so that they could show their support for the LGBT community, allowing us to be able to afford to host our event at such an amazing venue.

Pride House Toronto stepped in and covered the reduced venue rental fee. This allowed us to keep the gate cost very low so that more members of our community could afford to attend and take part in the celebration.

The fundraising dollars aren’t counted yet, that comes next week after the festival is over. But your contributions helped raise a good amount of money to support the valuable programs of Pride Toronto and OutSport Toronto.

Thank you to everyone who contributed and took part… and we’ll see you all at Cabana Pool Bar again next year, on the Wednesday of Pride Weekend.

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