Local event planners and public non-profit organizations struggle to maintain Covid guidelines, prohibiting in-person gatherings. This leads them to cancel their events or host them virtually.

Event planners find themselves frustrated, not knowing how to proceed without explicit instruction. Librarians deliberate on ways to engage clients virtually, wishing to keep the community active and raise social spirits while student organizers wonder if they can move their events online or postpone these events altogether.

Ella, an 18-year-old high school student, who organizes LGBTQ artisan markets for youth, worries about her upcoming event taking place in Toronto, the weekend of February 12th. “We aren’t allowed to eat in or go to in-person classes so there’s a chance that this event won’t happen. I feel like the fact that I’m not certain about it is making me less comfortable paying the deposit fee and asking my vendors to pay their entry fees as well. It’s scary because this is real money that students have earned. I don’t want this event to be a gamble.” Ella has been organizing artisan markets since July 2021, this one being the biggest of them all. In total Ella has orchestrated four markets with vendors though fears that she may have to turn away loyal customers at the door and reject small businesses she hoped would sell their crafts. “It started as more of a garage sale type thing,” says Ella explaining her organization’s back story “now I have a venue that I rent, an application form for vendors, posters, business cards etc. It feels like I’ve come so far in these past months, and it feels amazing to create a safe queer space where youth artists can sell their work. I just hate the thought of having to cancel an event, I feel like that could lose me some clients…” Ella has pondered the idea of hosting this event virtually, knowing the risks of the world of technology, it would be a challenge. This year, 93% of event marketers plan to invest in virtual events moving forward (Bizzabo).

Ella isn’t the only LGBTQ Toronto youth organizer. Lavender Literature is a sapphic organization that hosts picnic gatherings and other activities such as penpal matching making, book discussions, art competitions, calligraphy workshops and poetry readings. The founders of Lavender Literature have not been able to host an in-person gathering since august, due to the rise in Covid cases, specifically the omicron variant (CTVNews). Hosting outdoor gatherings during the summer months is unfortunately not a permanent solution for this in Toronto, Canada, based book club due to the frequent inclement weather. Mable, co-president of the organization, understands that “people are much more willing to come, knowing that the gathering will be hosted outside, where they can comfortably take off their masks and socialize without feeling fearful of this virus.” With the fall in temperature, regular members of the book club became disinterested and were therefore less responsive to gathering proposals. “Now that we’re in stage 2, it’s even harder to think about the possibility of having picnics again, it seems more like a faraway dream.” Mable has taken initiative and co-hosted several virtual events on the Instagram and discord platforms as well as zoom. They admit that the art competition did go well although it limited the number of participants who entered the competition. Graphic designers were evidently placed at an advantage compared to the artists whose mediums consisted of papers and pencils. The pen pal activity took off as well, however, the submissions quickly grew out of hand. In response to the surge of international members who took interest in what had been planned as a local sapphic project, multiple members of the book club were interviewed for the matchmaking committee. Mable, optimistically, recognizes the benefits of these virtual activities, particularly the virtual book meetings that they host on weekends, over zoom. “One pretty lovely thing about these online events, is the number of international people that were able to join and connect with other queer teens like me. It’s sad that in-person events do limit the type of attendees to those who live in the local area but with the online book meeting, we had people from the UK, Russia, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Canada of course. I would say the best part of that meeting was getting to hear everyone’s different accents and seeing certain people share their cultural differences. It took some getting used to of course because not everyone was fluent in English but it was amazing to see how easily we were all able to talk with each other”

Other members from Lavender Literature agree with their co-president, Mable. One Australian participant remains grateful for the virtual occasion. “I don’t think I would’ve had the chance to be a part of this community if not for the in-person restrictions caused by Covid”, admits Kira. Certain members of the group benefit from this virtual lifestyle while others dislike it.