It may have rained a little bit on Monday, but the one place you could guarantee you'd see a rainbow was at Nathan Phillips Square.

That's where the curtain and the flag both went up on the city's annual Pride Week festivities.

The 26th annual event, which celebrates the city's gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community, kicked off at City Hall with a ceremony that would have seemed almost unthinkable when the celebrations first began in 1981.

It begins seven days of mirthful madness in the downtown core, which culminates in the annual Pride Parade, one of the largest such celebrations in the world. Every year, the event seems to get bigger, bringing in millions of tourists - and even more dollars.

"Pride Week is not only a celebration of Toronto's diversity, but an example to the world of our tolerance and inclusiveness," Mayor David Miller noted as the flag went up at the noon hour.  "This is one of the most important, colourful and fun events held in the city."

Among the planned showcases: an art exhibit, panels on gay literature, fashion shows, and three days of entertainment featuring 650 artists, including the Nylons, David Morales and Billy Newton Davis. There are three stages, all connecting to Church St., at Maitland, Wood and Gloucester. The freebies start Friday.

The Dyke March takes place on Saturday and the big parade, with its theme of "Fearless", ties up the downtown core for most of Sunday. It starts at Bloor and Church at 2pm, heads down Yonge St. to Gerrard and back over to Church. It's followed by a party that continues into the wee hours of the night.

If you have any weekend plans in the core, your best bet is to find another way to get there - and you may want to start planning now.

For more information on what's on where and when, click here.