Auckland Pride Festival
The Auckland Pride Festival is an annual festival held in Auckland, New Zealand. It began in 2013 and is New Zealand's largest Pride Festival. The festival has also brings together a number of other queer and queer supporting festivals and events in Auckland. They include the Same But Different Festival, Proud Centres run by Auckland Council, Ending HIV NZ Big Gay Out, F.I.N.E Festival, Heroic Gardens, and Bear Week New Zealand. Alongside the annual festival, Auckland Pride also hosts 'The Queer Agenda', a year-long programme of events that allow people to have a taste of pride outside of the festival dates.
History
The Auckland Pride Festival was started in 2013, by Julian Cook, the inaugural festival director. In 2013 the festival had over 40 events spread out over Auckland.In 2018 the festival had grown to over 80 events in the festival and 70 floats in the Parade. In that same year, Jacinda Ardern became the first New Zealand Prime Minister to walk in the Auckland Pride Parade.
Auckland Pride's 2020 Festival had 154 events. Proud Centres run by Auckland Council added 81 events to the festival. The New Zealand AIDS Foundation's Hauora Series gave funding to events in the Auckland Pride Festival that "focused on improving the well-being of diverse rainbow communities", adding 18 events to the festival. Spark New Zealand's Pride & Spark Empowerment Initiative helped fund 16 events.
The 2021 Auckland Pride Festival was the first ever Auckland Pride Month, with dates expanded from the general two and a half weeks to the whole month. The 2021 Festival under the theme, 'Karanga Atu, Karanga Mai' brought together 75,796 people from across Auckland, with 203 events. Over 9,000 people took part in the 2021 Pride March. Executive Director of Auckland Pride, Max Tweedie said, "Seeing our communities and Auckland as a whole embracing Pride Month was incredible”.
In June 2021, Auckland Pride Festival also announced The Queer Agenda, a programme of year-round pride events. The purpose of this is to " a platform for event organisers to promote their events from March – December, and create a unified calendar for our community and queer visitors to Auckland to connect and experience the best of what Auckland has to offer."
"No Police at Pride"
In 2015, the activist group People Against Prisons Aotearoa was formed to protest the participation of the New Zealand Police and Department of Corrections in the Auckland Pride Parade and Festival. In 2016, 50 protesters, led by No Pride in Prisons, demonstrated at the Auckland Pride parade. The group said it was disgraceful that Auckland Pride allowed police and Corrections to march in the parade.At the 2015 Pride Parade, one of the protester was injured during an altercation with security staff. In 2016, No Pride in Prisons brought the parade to a halt with a protest coming from the opposite end of Ponsonby road to clash with the parade. This protest was again for the rights of transgender people in prisons.
In 2017, the board banned the New Zealand Department of Corrections from walking in the parade as they did not follow through with their promises to improve support for queer prisoners. The board worked together with the Department of Corrections and the community to implement change within the prison system for queer prisoners due to the previous protests that happened in 2015 and 2016.
In 2019 The Auckland Pride Board made the decision after a number of community hui to not allow Police to march in their uniform for the 2019 Auckland Pride Parade. This decision was controversial, and a number of sponsors withdrew financial support in response, including Vodafone, NZME, ANZ, BNZ, Westpac, Fletcher Building, and SKY City. In response to this withdrawal, those who supported the Board's decision created a crowdfunding page, which raised $30,468.40. Some of those who opposed the Board's decision signed a motion of no confidence, and called for a SGM. This motion was defeated at a SGM on 6 December 2018.
A splinter group, "Rainbow Pride Auckland" formed to recreate a Parade, following a controversial period which saw the Auckland Pride Parade become OurMarch, a grassroots march focusing on current political issues within the extended Rainbow Community.
At the 2020 AGM, Auckland Pride Festival voted that they will not engage in a working group with NZ Police or have a relationship with the NZ Police until the Police are able to demonstrate that they are practising anti-racist behaviours. The membership also voted to leave InterPride.
Protests
2014 saw protesters demonstrating against the Israeli Embassy's presence at the parade.In 2018 TERF activists disrupted the parade by holding a sign that read "stop giving kids sex hormones, protect lesbian youth." After a short while, they were asked to move by parade staff.