Columbia Valley Pride to host their first Halloween drag show
By Chadd Cawson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
All creatures of the night who are 19 and older are invited to come out for a howling good time as Columbia Valley Pride hosts its first Halloween-themed drag show, Ghoul’s Night. This event is happening on October 29 at 7 p.m at the Columbia Valley Centre located on the unceded territories of the Secwépemc and Ktunaxa Peoples and the land chosen as home by the Métis Peoples of B.C.
“It’s new territory for us and an absolutely thrilling learning experience. We’re trying to engage the community in new ways and are hoping to expand our contribution to the Columbia Valley by being able to provide community resources and supports to other organizations,” said Darian Ariss (she/her), a Columbia Valley Pride board member since 2019 and recently-elected acting president. “Fingers crossed this event will help raise some funds to provide a springboard for this work.”
Columbia Valley Pride celebrated their third annual Pride Festival during Pride Month in June, on the 25th. It was the first time they were able to celebrate outside and in person due to the COVID pandemic. After a successful festival on on June 25 at CPR Lodge, they were approached by Karla Marx of Cabaret Calgary.
“Karla seemed really interested in our work and we’re hoping to bring their show to the Columbia Valley. They’re also involved with The Queer Education Foundation, so we’ve just been really excited to collaborate with them in supporting our vision to become a more resource driven organization,” said Ariss. “Cabaret Calgary has been the backbone of this event; all the graphics and marketing you see is their work. Columbia Valley Pride’s team is small, so we absolutely needed their support to make this happen.”
Karla Marx, known for being a fantastic performer and devoted advocate for queer rights and representation, has an upcoming stand-up comedy special called Comedy Invasion airing on Amazon Prime November 29.
“We’ve got Lilith Fair coming as well, who wrote and directed a play coming to New York, Broadway this December, as well as queens, Lola Jett, Hermena, and Tangerine Dream. It will be a full house,” said Ariss. “It’s going to be an absolute blast! We’ve got prizes, drinks, stand-up comedy, fabulous queens, and you can enjoy all that while knowing you’ll be contributing to the development of community resources in the valley.”
Ghoul’s Night is a fundraiser; all the proceeds will go to the 2LGBTQiA+ community. For the remainder of 2022, Columbia Valley Pride will focus on community resource initiatives.
“It feels like we’ve been doing a lot of grant writing lately – concentrating on bringing educational and health supports to the valley,” said Ariss. “Our first project will be bringing in some new 2LGBTQiA+ books to the libraries, who have been so fantastic to work with, and we’ve got lots more in store. We have a small volunteer board with some ambitious goals and we’re very grateful for the support we’ve been shown so far. We’re so excited to see the community supporting this fundraiser. We know there are lots of options for folks to consider around Halloween, so we intentionally set our time a bit earlier in the evening so people can come to our show and support other local events.”
Darian Ariss holds up a copy of The Family Book at the Invermere Public Library this past June.
Tickets to Ghoul’s Night Out are $35 and will be available to purchase online only right up until start time.
For more information on how to become a new member or to volunteer with Columbia Valley Pride visit their website at www.columbiavalleypride.org
