Pride Week Street Party returns to Cambridge bigger and better

A large section of Downtown Galt was shut down Saturday for a celebration that just keeps growing.

The second annual Cambridge Pride Week Street Party took over several blocks at Main and Water Streets and featured 35 vendors, live music, food, drag shows, and more.

"Every event and every performer is very family friendly and free," said Eric Bolton, a co-founder of Grand River Pride. "We try to make it just a little bit something for everyone and it's really good positive vibes. It's been awesome."

Grand River Pride and last year's Cambridge Pride Week Street Party started when co-founders Bolton and Bryan Causarano-Bolton noticed a lack of Pride events in the Cambridge area.

"What if we just start trying to fundraise and make a party happen?" said Bolton. "It turned into a whole week of other events in partnership with local businesses and it just grew and grew and grew. Even last year we didn't know if people were even coming out, and we got about 3,000 people out.

"It's even bigger this year."

Grand River Pride has been putting on several events throughout the week and will be heading down to Ayr next weekend to help them kick off their first Pride event.

"We grew up in communities where this was never an option for us," said Caursarano-Bolton. "We see so many people on the street who cannot see themselves. We can actually feel like this is a community that they belong in, and I think that just being able to see yourself in the community you're living in is such a huge thing.

"Our intention was to create something that could be in many different places and many different communities. Along the Grand River, we're trying to find different communities that we can be involved in."