Vancouver Pagan Pride

Building Community

cuhulain — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 15:24:29 +0000

The theme for Vancouver Pagan Pride 2013 is “Building Community”. This year we’d like a different Pagan group to call each of the quarters for the opening ritual. Let us know if you’d like to participate in this as soon as possible, as we’re busily putting it all together now.

We’d also like all groups participating in Vancouver Pagan Pride to send us a description of their group and a photo that we can put on this site to let people interested in this event know who you are and what you’re about.

We beat our attendance record the last two years in a row and it would be great if we could do that again this year. Hope to see you all there.

Kerr Cuhulain, Chairperson

Vancouver Pagan Pride 2013 Update

cuhulain — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 05:00:45 +0000

Everything is on track for Vancouver Pagan Pride 2013 on 10 August 2013 in Hawthorne Park. We’ve got our lottery license for the 50/50 draw and are waiting on approval from the city of Surrey on the park: we don’t anticipate any problems with this.

We’ve had some people express an interest in getting involved as volunteers. One has already come forward to propose various fund raising schemes. If you are interested, please contact us. We can always use additional help.

Also, one of my Heathen brothers loaned me a book (Words for Warriors) at last years event, but I can’t recall which one. If it is yours, please contact me because I’d like to get it back to you.

Kerr Cuhulain

VPPD 2013 Meeting

cuhulain — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 16:20:21 +0000

Its time to get going on Vancouver Pagan Pride 2013. After last year’s event a number of people came forward saying they’d like to be involved in the 2013 event. There will be a meeting at the Order of Scathach’s Motherhouse in Surrey (15439 27A Ave) at 6 PM on Sunday, February 10th for anyone who is interested.

In Her Service, Kerr Cuhulain

Vancouver Pagan Pride 2013

cuhulain — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 01:00:00 +0000

ATC Ritual at VPPD 2012

For next year we’d like to expand this site to have a page describing all of the different traditions and spiritual paths that participate in Vancouver Pagan Pride. If you’ve been involved in past events or intend to be part of Vancouver Pagan Pride in 2013, please send us information on your organization so that we can include it in the new improved site.

In Her Service, Kerr Cuhulain

Vancouver Pagan Pride 2012 After Action Report

cuhulain — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 14:19:17 +0000

We would like to thank everyone that helped us make Vancouver Pagan Pride a successful event for 2012. Last year we kept accurate counts during the day and this year we did the same, so we were able to get an precise comparison between attendance this year and last. Here are the figures:

Time/Event	Count 2011	Count 2012	% change
Opening Ritual	96	124	1.29
Noon	136	169	1.24
2 PM	148	220	1.48
4 PM	124	148	1.19
Closing Ritual	114	136	1.19

Many people that were in attendance in the morning were not there in the afternoon, having been replaced with a fresh contingent of attendees. Based on this, my estimate of the actual attendance: ~350. So we’ve certainly increased the attendance from last year. Many of these people were elders in the community that certainly had not been there last year.

This is the second year that government officials had been invited to this event. MLA Bruce Ralston attended as he did last year. Mayor Diane Watts would have, but was out of town at a meeting, so she sent a message to be read at the gathering, as did the Lieutenant Governor of BC. Ralston told me that he was pleased to see our community growing. Last year we had no response from the Prime Minister’s office. This year we did.

A major change from last year was that we sent out press releases to every media outlet that we could and got no response at all. This year we had three papers run articles on Pagan Pride, making the front page of the Surrey Now paper: http://www.thenownewspaper.com/index.html. We got a photo of our members on the front page of the Burnaby Now paper and an article with photos on the community page: http://www.burnabynow.com/community/index.html. On the day of the event we had two newspaper photographers attend and spend hours photographing attendees and interviewing me, so there are more articles to come. One was from the Surrey Leader, who posted this notice before our event: http://www.surreyleader.com/lifestyles/164294456.html

Positive feedback came in to us all day long and was already showing up on the VPPD Facebook page that evening. Since then we’ve continued to receive a lot of positive feedback and we appreciate it. Many people were asking: “Will you be running next year’s VPPD?” Yes, we will. Some others asked if they could become involved in running next year’s event, even though they are not members of our Order. Volunteers are certainly welcomed, and we’ve asked them to contact us to get involved.

This was the second year that VPPD had proper security and first aid (with equipment and radios). There were no significant events to report: A couple of young children (from families in the adjacent playground and unrelated to any attending Pagans) were caught shoplifting from merchants but the merchandise was recovered. This was the second year that we had individuals in charge of each of the responsibilities for running the event. Our coordinator for entertainment and rituals had excellent rituals from opening to closing and some outstanding entertainment all day. Out coordinator of merchants did an outstanding job. The number of merchants increased from last year: 33 this year, up 16 from last year. This included 7 healers who set up a separate healing site. This brought in $495.00 in merchant’s fees.

The 50/50 draw was a bit disappointing. With larger numbers of people in attendance I would like to have seen an increase from the amount we made last year ($214.50), but we actually made less ($91.50). We offered cold drinks and snacks by donation to assist financially challenged families and took in $44.25. I had feedback from many of the vendors indicating they had lots of people looking but not so many purchasing. I take this as an indication of the tough financial times that many people are enduring. This means we certainly did a little better than breaking even on costs, and the Order is content with that, but next year I want to go after more corporate sponsors. We had Starbucks donate coffee for our gathering this year, but I’m hoping that we can get other donations and support next year.

I was very happy to see that people took our advice after last year and made themselves more visible with clearly identifiable booths and clothing. It certainly made it better for the press, who as I said were there taking lots of pictures.

Lady Sorayah, our entertainment coordinator, posted some good photos of the event on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152034351675300.901117.616480299&type=1

In Her Service, Kerr Cuhulain

Preceptor General, Order of Scathách

Chairperson for Vancouver Pagan Pride

VPPD 2012 Update: 8 Days to Go…

cuhulain — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 20:43:23 +0000

We’ve just done some more media interviews and our merchant count for the upcoming event is now 24. We’ve heard from the Surrey Mayor’s office and local MLAs who are attending the opening ceremony. Things are looking good for another successful Pagan Pride.

Unfortunately we’ve been informed that due to insurmountable problems with Canadian Border Services, Jillian LeDage will not be performing at the event. That’s unfortunate, but we still have many other amazing performers presenting at this year’s Pagan Pride, as well as rituals and classes. Come out and help make this the biggest Vancouver Pagan Pride ever!

Jillian LaDage Joins the Entertainment Lineup

cuhulain — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 15:55:17 +0000

We’ve just added Celtic Singer/Songwriter Jillian LaDage to our entertainment lineup. You can check her out at Tarith Cote: The Official Website of Jillian LaDage

VPPD Update: Go Green and Go Transit

cuhulain — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 19:53:38 +0000

Our merchant coordinator Janus has some advice for those who wish to use transit to attend this year’s Vancouver Pagan Pride:

Go green, go transit! But please…don’t rely on Translink’s web page for directions. Even the transit drivers agree that it’s pretty much useless most of the time. If you need printed bus schedules, you can get them for free at any local library, and the larger libraries will have them for all areas.

For now, let me just say that there are four buses to and from Surrey Central that run within walking distance of VPPD: the 320, the 501 (both run along 104 Avenue, and there is a stop at 142 Street that will bring you right to the back door of the park), the 332, and the 335 (both of which run along 108 Avenue, where you get off at 144 Street and walk south for about five minutes to the main entrance to the park).

Also, we’ve updated the entertainment schedule with the addition of popular entertainer Heather Dale (http://heatherdale.com/), the Vancouver Goddess Choir, Caer Seren, and our friend Tam on guitar.

One Month to Go!

cuhulain — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 19:54:38 +0000

Order of Scathach Armoring Ritual

Only one month to go until Vancouver Pagan Pride 2012! Last year I made several counts during the course of the day. People came and went all day, so not all of the people on site at the end of the day were there at the beginning. Taking this into account we estimate that we doubled previous attendance records, having had ~250 people on site during the day. We hope to do the same again this year. Help us get the word out! Here’s some pamphlets you can print out at hand out (first one is Word, the second PDF):

ppd brochure

The schedule page has been continuously updated but we could still squeeze some more in. If you’ve got a class or a ritual you’d like to present, please contact us as soon as possible.

We’ll be having a 50/50 raffle to raise funds for future PPD events, as well as donation boxes for the food bank and the SPCA, so bring donations to support these worthy causes. Lynda Boucher’s Gourmet Hotties will be on site to feed us, and we’ll have coffee (courtesy of Starbucks). Cash only please. So far we’ve got 19 vendors lined up for the festival as well as a healing area with 7 healers on site to help people.

Help us make this the best Vancouver Pagan Pride Day ever!

Vancouver Pagan Pride Schedule

cuhulain — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 15:20:26 +0000

The schedule for rituals for VPPD 2012 has been posted on the Schedule 2012 Page. All of the rituals are on there, some of the classes, and the tentative children’s schedule. We’ve got 16 merchants registered and a fully staffed healers area. If you want to do a class/ritual/performance and haven’t contacted us yet, please do so ASAP so we can get you on the schedule. We’ve got a 50/50 draw as we did last year and are looking for donations for the food bank and SPCA. Looking forward to seeing you all there. We doubled the attendance last year, let’s double it again and show the world how many of us there are.

Go to the Location page for a map and the address if you want to Google it for directions.

NOTE: Wear something to identify the group that you’re affiliated with, set up signs or banners identifying your groups, make yourself visible. The only complaint that we had last year was the the only people easily visible at PPD were the knights of the Order of Scathach.