Calgary Pride 2016 festivities to include giant slip and slide at Canada Olympic Park

WinSport wants Calgarians to show their Pride later this summer by getting soaking wet.

The non-profit keeper of Calgary's Winter Olympic legacy venues is hosting a Pride Slide party to kick off the city's 26th annual Pride Week festivities.

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The 246-metre slide will be the main attraction at an 18-plus party with DJs, a cocktail garden and drag queens at Canada Olympic Park on Aug. 27 from noon to 11 p.m.

"As an organization proud to foster LGBTQ inclusion in both community and sport in partnership with the Canadian Olympic Committee's One Team Initiative and You Can Play, WinSport is truly excited to host the Pride Slide on our campus to celebrate gender and sexual diversity for Calgary Pride Week," said WinSport CEO Barry M. Heck in a release.

The winter sports institute says it has made several advances recently inpromoting LGBTQ inclusion.

"We are proud to support a gay men's team in our WinSport Hockey Canada League and we have recently implemented LGBTQawareness into our camp counsellor training program," says Kim Jones, WinSport's Vice-President and General Counsel, who was recently appointed an ambassador for You Can Play.

"The Pride Slide is one more example of WinSport's commitment to creating a place where everyone is welcome."

Calgary Pride president Stephen Wright says the WinSport party is a great way to promote an accepting community free from all forms of discrimination.

"WinSport has shown real leadership in promoting LGBTQ inclusion in sport and this new Pride Slide and Festival is an amazing way to take that support even further into the community," he said.

"To every Calgarian, our message is: come to WinSport, celebrate diversity, slide down the enormous Pride Slide and join the party. Because a society that celebrates diversity is also a fun society."

Tickets for the Pride Slide party are available atticketmaster.ca.

Pride Week wraps up on Sept. 4 with annual parade down Ninth Avenue from noon to 1:30 p.m. and a free music festival at Shaw Millennium Park from 12:30 p.m. to 6 p.m.

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