Canadian fans surprise band with incredible DIY Pride project at concert

Usually, when you go to a concert, you expect to leave feeling like the artist you just saw made a lasting impression on you, but during boygenius’s brief stop in Toronto on Wednesday night, that script was flipped.

Thanks to the remarkable effort of one crafty fan, the audience of 16,000 people attending the concert at Budweiser Stage came together for a heart-warming gesture that truly felt like a movie moment.

Holding coloured pieces of paper over their flashlights in unison, the audience created a glimmering rainbow of lights in support of the three LGBTQ+ artists, a display that proved to be a real showstopper – literally.

Details on the fan project shared to TikTok.

In a very 2023 fashion, the story of how this all came together so perfectly is documented on TikTok.

So boygenius just posted the fan project on tiktok. I will never recover 🙂 #BoygeniusToronto pic.twitter.com/bcVh3IGzVx

— Toronto Boygenius Fan Project (@boygenius_TOR) June 22, 2023

About a month ago, an account was created under the name Toronto Boy Genius Fan Project.

Through a series of posts, the creator explains her plan to assemble the rainbow using a diagram of the seating map, and shares some process videos as well, like her tedious mission of cutting thousands of pieces of paper to distribute to the audience.

On the day of the show, a group of volunteers came through to help her out, and arriving guests were handed their paper slips and let in on the plan.

You might also like:
• Supergroup Boygenius and Carly Rae Jepsen will rock out Vancouver this summer
• Taylor Swift's Seattle concerts have $3,000+ nosebleeds for sale
• Weird reason author wasn't let into Canada is still a headache decades later

In case it wasn’t clear enough, each slip also had instructions: during “Cool About It,” hold this paper over your flashlight.

Simple, right?

Ultimately though, it was up to the audience whether or not the rainbow was going to work. Judging by the videos from the moment it happened, it’s clear that the crowd didn’t disappoint.

The boys’ reactions to the boygenius Toronto fan project pic.twitter.com/pie0oFh1Nx

— lili (@browdestroyer) June 22, 2023

It took the artists a second to realize, but when the indie rock trio caught on to what was happening, they had to pause to let it sink in.

Before the music resumed, vocalist Phoebe Bridgers confirmed to the crowd that the gesture had hit home. “Core memory formed,” she told them. Well done, Toronto.