Kelowna Pride

Kelowna Pride is the main LGBTQ+ event in BC's Okanagan Valley: a week of smaller events capped by a march through downtown and a free festival in City Park on the lake. The first march here was in 1996, with fewer than 100 people by one participant's account, and the Kelowna Pride Society has run things since 2004. The city's record is mixed. In the late 1990s the mayor refused to proclaim a Pride day, and the BC Human Rights Tribunal ruled in 2000 that the refusal was discriminatory. In 2016 Christy Clark became the first sitting head of BC's provincial government to walk in the march.

The march leaves Stuart Park and ends at City Park, where the festival runs from late morning into the afternoon with stages, vendors and community booths. Pride week fills in around it with things like the free Ride for Pride bike ride. On festival Saturday the only free downtown parking is the Chapman Parkade, so walk or cycle if you can.

Pride Week 2026 ran from 31 May to 7 June, with the march and festival on Saturday 6 June; organizers projected more than 10,000 people at the festival. The 2027 dates hadn't been announced when we checked.