Surrey Pride 2027

Surrey Pride is the LGBTQ+ festival of British Columbia's second-largest city. It takes place in June, during Pride Month, and is set up as a street festival with a stage, information booths and vendors rather than a big parade. It is run by the Surrey Pride Society, a non-profit that works year-round and sees itself as one part of a coalition of local groups that coordinate events during Pride Month.

The roots go back to the late 1990s. A small group around Martin Rooney organised a dance at the Greek Hall to raise money against a book ban by the local school district. A year later the first Surrey Pride BBQ, festival and dance was held at Sullivan Hall. The people behind it founded the Out in Surrey Rainbow Cultural Society, which later changed its name to Surrey Pride Society. The society also gave rise to the Surrey Youth Alliance and to a drag group, the Empire of the Peace Arch Monarchist Association.

The festival has moved several times. For about ten years Holland Park in the city centre was its home. For the twentieth anniversary it moved to the plaza outside Central City Shopping Centre, and later to Civic Plaza by City Hall. During the pandemic Surrey Pride went online. The 25th anniversary added a Rainbow Gala with an awards night, and the Pride flag was raised at City Hall for the first time.

Outside the festival day, the Surrey Pride Society runs events for young people and socials for seniors, as well as drag contests such as So YOU think YOU can DRAG. Surrey has been a municipality since the late nineteenth century and only became a city in the 1990s. Immigration, especially from South Asia, has shaped the city, and that mix shows in the crowd at Pride.