Underground Pride returns to Longboat Hall with Michelle Ross tribute
The grassroots celebration of underground Queer artists runs Saturday, June 27 at 10 p.m. with $15 tickets and affordable drinks.
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Underground Pride returns to Toronto for its third year on Saturday, June 27, creating an affordable space to celebrate local Queer artists while reconnecting Pride with its grassroots origins. This year's event brings together DJs, dancers, and drag performers at Longboat Hall starting at 10 p.m., with tickets intentionally priced at just $15 and cheap drink options available throughout the night.
Founded by artist and organizer Artin Avaznia, Underground Pride spotlights artists, performers, and community builders who have shaped 2SLGBTQIA+ culture from the margins. "Underground Queer artists have been driving culture for basically eons at this point," Avaznia told Queer & Now. "There are so many remarkable artists in the underground Queer world that are still influencing the mainstream, and we don't always get the proper recognition."
The founder says affordability is just one of the event's goals. Organizers also aim to honor the origins of the movement itself. "Pride started as a protest underground. There are still so many parts of the world where being Queer or Trans is illegal, and our celebrations are still underground," Avaznia explained. As an Iranian man, he has struggled with family and cultural acceptance of his Queer identity, leaving him estranged from his family for over six years. The event honours both the origins of the Pride movement and the way many 2SLGBTQIA+ people around the world continue to be forced to exist underground.
This year's opening tribute is dedicated to the late local drag superstar Michelle Ross, a pioneering Jamaican-born force whose work helped shape Toronto's Queer culture. From the 1970s until her death in 2021, Ross performed internationally, appearing on stages in Paris and Japan while also returning to Jamaica to perform in underground shows despite the risks facing Queer people there. In Toronto, she became a trailblazer during a period when Church and Wellesley was still emerging as a hub for the city's LGBTQ+ community.