The Auckland Pride Board has some exciting updates following our Community Hui held yesterday evening, Tuesday 18 December, where around 100 members of the community were present to help us vision what a community-led Pride will look like.

We want to begin by informing you that we have created the role of Festival Coordinator, and have appointed Joel Walsham into the role, to help the Auckland Pride Board going forward with the execution of the Pride Festival. This will replace the previous role of the Festival Director. The new role will be revisited after the Festival in March, based on performance and the needs of the community. We are excited for Joel to work alongside our community to put together a vibrant festival and work towards a grassroots-led Parade.

At the Community Hui, participants strongly emphasised that they wanted a Pride that was about visibility, engagement with communities that haven’t always felt represented by the event, as well as celebration. The Pride Parade’s shape and form will not be like in previous years. With a more community-based funding model, we have the challenge and opportunity to be creative on what the actual proceeding will look like. We will be working with our Festival Coordinator and Parade Director to finalise the Parade details, based on the information gathered at the Community Hui, and will continue keeping our membership up to date. Nevertheless, the Auckland Pride Board will put all of its efforts in ensuring that there is a space for our community to march and be visible during the Pride season — a community-led vision for a relaunched Parade.

The Pride Festival is going ahead and we will work with groups across Auckland to promote the festival events and ensure they receive the visibility they deserve. As the Board’s community funding gathers strength, we will reinvent the Gala in a way that represents the community vision for Auckland Pride. The Ending HIV Big Gay Out is also still going ahead and we thank the New Zealand AIDS Foundation for their ongoing relationship with Auckland Pride and work on getting this event off the ground.

Look forward to an announcement on what our Parade, Party, and Festival will look like next year soon!

We are grateful for the revitalised engagement from the community and your feedback. Our commitment to ensuring that we are able to celebrate our gender and sexual identities, whilst highlighting the pressing issues our community faces, is stronger than ever. We know that a renewed vision of Pride can see us celebrate while leaving no one behind.

If you wish to help out make Auckland Pride 2019 a success, or have any follow up questions, please get in touch and email [email protected].

Website:  https://aucklandpride.org.nz
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/AucklandPride/
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/AucklandPride
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aucklandpride/

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