Pride celebrations are underway, and Vancouver's largest parade is slated for August 3, but at least one local event organizer has his sights set on a much bigger gay gala: the weeklong Cleveland Gay Games 9 scheduled to start August 9.
Vancouver's Patrick Roberge Productions (PRP), which is organizing the opening ceremonies for the world's largest multi-sport gay festival, is busy these days.
The company is also producing the opening ceremony for the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup August 5 in Toronto. It regularly produces Canadian Football League Grey Cup halftime shows and is gearing up for the November 30 extravaganza at BC Place. PRP also recently won the bid to produce the opening ceremonies for the FIFA Women's World Cup next June in Edmonton.
“Organizing the opening ceremony for the Vancouver Paralympic Games in 2010 was really the stepping-off point for us,” PRP principal Patrick Roberge told Business in Vancouver. “It was a real door opener and gave us the opportunity to have conversations with people who we never would have been able to speak with before.”
Roberge opened an office in Toronto soon after the 2010 Olympics, in which he worked on launches for the mascots, the logo and the 100-day countdown.
He also moved to an 8,000-square-foot space near Fraser and Kent streets from a small office at the Pacific National Exhibition.
PRP revenue has doubled in the past four years to approximately $4 million, and Roberge's staff count sometimes ramps up to about 100, although he employs 10 full-time.
“PRP's experience and the fact that they were able to understand our limitations and our possibilities was part of why he was chosen,” said Gay Games 9 events director Rob Smitherman. “We couldn't throw lots and lots of money at the opening ceremonies, but we were really looking to have something professional – a big event for a limited budget, and Patrick seems to excel at that.”
Budgets for many extravaganzas have risen during the past decade, creating more work in the sector, said Nick Winslow Consulting's California-based principal, Nick Winslow, who has decades of experience and was once president of Warner Bros.' theme park division.
But he added that organizing committees still allot roughly the same percentage of their budgets to their opening galas. Exact percentages spent on glitzy extravaganzas vary depending on the event.
“The biggest change for us from a business perspective is that now we're talking about projects years into the future, such as Grey Cup 2016,” Roberge said. “That's a big shift from reacting to business as it comes down the pike and being the last one in the door.”
Already this summer Roberge has organized opening ceremonies for events such as the Special Olympics on July 8 and the International Softball Federation's Junior Men's World Softball Championships July 11 in Whitehorse. Similar work for Prince George's Canada Games in February is underway.
“The most fun I'm having is with the Gay Games,” Roberge said. “Sometimes opening ceremonies can get so precious that you can't relax and give athletes a really fun time. This one we can.”
He added that part of the satisfaction he feels about his work in Cleveland relates to the inclusion that the Gay Games represent for its expected 8,000 participants and 20,000 spectators for 36 sports.
“There are Russian and Iranian athletes – people coming from countries where they would be shot if authorities knew they were going to the Gay Games,” Roberge said. “Right there, it's an opportunity for us to provide an experience that is life-changing.”
The City of Vancouver subsidized 75% of the Vancouver Pride Society's (VPS) policing and cleanup costs for the first time at last year's Pride Parade, but that failed to keep the VPS out of the red.
VPS president Ray Lam told Business in Vancouver that his society has since paid off the $132,800 deficit on last year's million-dollar budget and that this year's same-sized festival will break even.
He expects that the approximately $34,500 in city subsidization will enable the festival to add extra features.
The funding will help the VPS add extra seating, stream a video of the parade on a large screen at Sunset Beach Park and add two bike valet services, which are essentially like coat checks for bikes.
The festival's 20 events between July 24 and August 4 are expected to draw approximately 150,000 people; the parade, slated for August 3, is projected to draw 650,000 people, according to the VPS.
The organization's million-dollar budget includes about $600,000 in cash and $400,000 worth of in-kind donations.
