Vancouver council mulls return of Pride weekend street festival

FILE - A large rainbow flag is carried by people marching in the Vancouver Pride Parade, in Vancouver, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

A Vancouver city councillor has brought forward a motion to bring back a West End weekend street festival that hasn’t happened since 2019.

Pre-pandemic, the Vancouver Pride Society regularly hosted the Davie Street Block Party over Pride weekend.

Davie Street would be closed to vehicle traffic to make way for performance stages, merchants, food trucks and licensed areas for alcohol sales.

The event has not been held since 2019.

“With the change of the parade route ending at Concord Pacific Place, that’s great to have that celebration there,” said councillor Peter Meiszner, who brought forward the motion. “This is not meant to compete with that. But what I’ve been hearing is that people really want to come back to Davie Street and have that street party on Sunday night. And be able to enjoy that and patronize the bars and restaurants there as well.”

The motion directs city staff to work with the West End BIA, the Vancouver Pride Society, and Qmunity, along with other stakeholders, including Vancouver police and TransLink to initiate a full closure of Davie Street between Burrard and Jervis streets over Pride this summer.

The public will have an opportunity to share their thoughts when the motion comes up at a council meeting scheduled for Wednesday.