Saskatoon’s Pride Parade brings cheer, music and colour to the city centre on a gloomy day

Drumming, dancing, girls just wanna have funrainbow umbrellas, rainbow bow ties, a Dalmatian with rainbow spots, the twang of Shania Twain and the rhythm of a violin.

Those were the sights and sounds of the 2024 Saskatoon Pride Parade, which marched through the city centre.

The first float, which opened the parade with drumbeats and Native American chants, left just after noon, heading west on 24th Street E.

“I think it’s a beautiful way to start Pride because there have always been two-spirit people living in these areas,” said Prestin Thôtin-Awâsis, a Cree and Métis person and member of the 2 Spirits in Motion Society (2SiMS).

Prestin Thôtin-Awâsis, left, walks next to the lead float in the 2024 Saskatoon Pride Parade. (Dayne Patterson/CBC)

The national 2SiMS organization hosted a two-spirit powwow on Friday.

“It was just wonderful to feel that the community was there for us. I have that feeling yesterday and today.”

Further down the line, churches in Saskatoon showed their support for Pride.

“Pride is a wonderful celebration of our community and its diversity,” said Reverend Mitchell Anderson of St. Paul’s United Church.

“Churches are often places of homophobia and transphobia. For churches from different traditions that are committed to the inclusion of all people, including queer, trans and two-spirit communities, it is therefore very important to be here and to be visible and bold.”

People handed out candy and stickers to spectators along the side of the road. (Dayne Patterson/CBC)

People dressed in bright colours, waving rainbow flags and some with painted faces lined the streets of the nearly two-kilometre zigzag route through downtown Saskatoon.

This also includes Melanie Nahachewsky and her family.

“We’re just here to celebrate love and want our children to celebrate love too, in whatever form that takes,” she said.

Nahachewsky said she grew up in a privileged and sometimes closed space. She doesn’t want the same upbringing for her own children, she said.

“The world is much bigger than what they see in their nuclear family.”

Sitting on the grassy curb next to her, young Poppy Nahachewsky said she likes to celebrate Pride because “people are different and they are beautiful no matter what.”