Queen City Pride Parade wraps up weeklong festival

The Queen City Pride Festival wraps up its annual weeklong celebration on Saturday with the Pride Parade.

The co-chair of the Queen City Pride Festival expects thousands to turn out for the parade, which will wind itsway through downtown Regina.

Jesse Ireland saidthe LGBTcommunity has come a long way over the years, seeing a great shift in community involvement.

"It started off 27 years ago with something very small. It was more of a demonstration, more of a march, more of an activist movement. We are still trying to be as political and activist as possible, but it has developed a little bit more into a celebration."

Ireland saidthere were many highlightsfor him personally during the weeklong festival, such as the awards gala on Wednesday, and Saskatchewan's first ally blood donation clinic on Friday.

The festival will culminate with Saturday's parade and party. Ireland saidhe would like to see it continue annually for a very long time.

"I think it's important we continue these celebrations and have these pride festivals as more a remembrance of where we came from and where we still have to go. There are also a lot of countries around the world that don't have the same rights and equalities that we have here."

The parade will start at noon on 13thAvenueand ScarthStreet,winding its way through the downtown area and wrapping up in Victoria Park.