A day after Montreal Pride abruptly canceled the parade just hours before it was to start, organizers didn’t have much to say about how poorly they managed the festival’s main event.
And now there is concern about how the embarrassing mistake could damage the city’s reputation.
The head of the organization running the week-long festival, Simon Gamache, said on Sunday the parade had to be canceled because there were not enough volunteers to ensure it could go ahead safely.
The board of directors said Monday it had set up an internal “post-mortem committee” to investigate why the parade had to be cancelled, but declined requests for media interviews.
“Montréal Pride will issue a press release on the results of its 2022 Festival later this week,” Nathalie Roy, a spokeswoman for the festival, wrote in an email to CTV News.
PARADE CANCELLATION COULD HAVE LASTING EFFECTS: PROFESSOR
Such a sad ending to the festival could have lasting impacts on the city’s marketability for hosting big events, according to Robert Soroka, a professor at the John Molson School of Business.
“Clearly, the city of Montreal will be compromised. One would anticipate that there is a lot of discussion in the mayor’s office right now about what they could have done or should have done to prevent this from happening,” he said.
“Montreal’s reputation as an event or host city is also compromised. It’s not just the Pride parade…that’s compromised, it could be other events where sponsors will question whether Montreal can support it. This has a far reaching impact.” that just this particular week. -long event.”
He said the show’s sponsors were equally hurt because they didn’t “get the benefit of the deal” by teaming up to support the show’s cause and promote their brand.
One of the main sponsors of the festival, Loto-Quebec, said it still planned to support the Montreal Pride Festival next year.
ORGANIZERS ‘FORGETTED’ TO HIRE SECURITY: REPORTS
In the past 24 hours, Gamache, who has been in his new role for less than a year, told other media outlets that the organization “forgot” to hire the paid volunteers required to provide security along the parade route.
The festival received $600,000 from the city of Montreal, as well as more than $1.1 million from the Quebec government for this year’s event, which also included concerts and other events. After the parade was cancelled, thousands of fans were still able to watch the closing performances, including Brazilian headliner Pablo Vittar’s show at the Olympic Stadium.
Still, missing the first gay pride parade in two years due to the pandemic was a huge blow not only to tourists, but also to the merchants of Montreal’s Gay Village.
“My team was there all day yesterday and some of them were in tears because they were looking forward to this great fabulous day,” said Gabrielle Rondy, executive director of Société de développement commercial (SDC) du Village, an organization that supports village businesses. .
Jonathan Savage, one of the thousands of tourists who came to Montreal to watch the parade, was also upset.
“I’ve never seen anything like it. I feel sorry for the people who spent all this money getting ready,” he said.
Festival organizers were scheduled to meet with city officials Monday to explain what went wrong. Since the city is a major funding source for the festival, officials will want to know how a major event can be canceled on such short notice without even a phone call to the mayor’s office ahead of time.
Mayor Valerie Plante said she was just as shocked as everyone else on Sunday after reading about the cancellation in the news.
One person who has experience organizing annual parades in Montreal is Kevin Tracey of the United Irish Societies of Montreal, which is responsible for the St. Patrick’s Day parade. He said he pays for private security for the parade route and has had to beef up security over the years to make sure everything runs smoothly.
“And that’s part of our budget. We also have the police tech cadets from John Abbott College and we also have a large turnout from sheriffs. We have, easily, 60+ marshals to handle the parade route,” he said.
THE FESTIVALISTS PARTYED ANYWAY
Tracey said she wondered why the Pride parade was canceled so abruptly, since planning for such an event requires a dozen groups to work together, including paramedics, police, as well as parking and sanitation considerations.
“And, you know, if we needed help, I think it was probably a phone call or two away,” he said.
“So I wouldn’t criticize the police or anything with the city of Montreal in terms of our planning, they’ve always been very helpful to us.”
The head of the Village merchants association also wondered what the impact would be on the community, which has struggled with closures and less foot traffic in the past two years.
“Pride Sunday is always a very busy day for our merchants, so of course everyone was very sad at first,” Rondy said.
Rondy said the true colors of the town were on display Sunday when hundreds of people flocked to Saint-Catherine Street and held temporary parties to upbeat music.
“It was very beautiful to see.”
With archives from The Canadian Press and Daniel J. Rowe of CTV Montreal