Norwood Pride has announced its 2026 theme will be “Rainbow Country” in celebration of nine years of building queer community in a small town.
The volunteer-run group is hosting a community-focused family-friendly event on Sunday, July 12 from noon to 4 p.m. at the Norwood Legion at 27 King Street, featuring bingo, a BBQ, cash bar, music, cake, and a family zone.
“I’m really excited about Pride bingo, I’m really excited about the music, the celebration, and the community,” said Tony Tavares, board member for Norwood Pride, in a recent interview with kawarthaNOW.
Norwood, which sits 30 minutes east of Peterborough, is a small rural community home to fewer than 2,000 people. But the town’s small size doesn’t stop a strong turnout at the community’s annual Pride celebrations.
Tavares was a founding member of Norwood Pride back in 2017 when he and his partner Shane Hodge along with and their friend Braden Clark had the idea to start a local Pride event in Norwood.
“We were actually joking about having a Norwood Pride, because this idea of small-town Pride was not really a big thing at the time,” said Tavares. “After the big joke, we thought why wouldn’t we have a Pride in Norwood?”
The group led the organization of seven Pride events in Norwood since 2017, only having a short hiatus during the height of the pandemic, attracting around 200 people annually for the celebration.
“The vast number of people there were community people just coming to show their support — straight people bringing their kids, older generations showing up,” remembers Tavares of the first year. “They were saying: we’re here to support you, you’re welcome in our community.”
In 2019, Norwood Pride officially incorporated as a not-for-profit, and have since been investing donations back into their work to help keep events free and community-centric.
Although Tavares tells the story of joking about hosting Pride events in a community as small as Norwood, he also said that the group wants to create opportunities for queer visibility in the community.
“Despite there being more resources than when we were growing up and coming out, or not coming out, in these small towns people can still feel quite isolated,” said Tavares. “Visibility here is really important, because there are no immediate local resources.”
“If we can even just connect at some level, even if they don’t come, but they see posters with some kid who’s struggling, who doesn’t take their lives, or fall into some deep depression, because they see not only a Pride Parade, but the community supporting them, then that would be worth all the effort.”
As for the 2026 theme, Taveres says “Rainbow Country speaks to the symbolism of the rainbow for Pride, and it speaks to the fact that we’re doing this in a small community.”
“The world’s a tough place right now, and so we wanted for this to be a joyous celebratory event.”
Tavares told kawarthaNOW that proceeds from the event raised through nominal fees for food will go back into the organization to cover core expenses and support future Pride events.
“We’re just doing this in our own time, we’re not getting paid for this (and) we don’t want to get paid for this,” he said.
Speaking to community members considering attending Norwood Pride for the first time in 2026, Tavares said “Everybody should feel welcome — you’ll probably find your neighbours there.”
For more information about Norwood Pride, visit norwoodpride.ca.
