Auckland Pride will continue to support its artists, event organisers, and community as the Festival’s 40 postponed events expand beyond February in response to changes in Alert Levels. These events give Auckland’s rainbow communities much to look forward to when we shift down alert levels again, and encourage our communities to get out and support them once it’s safe.

“While we are now outside of the official Auckland Pride Festival dates, we are excited that we can continue to spread Pride across Tāmaki Makaurau” says Director of Auckland Pride Max Tweedie. “Our event organisers have invested so much time, energy, and resources into producing their events and we’re committed to seeing them through, with some major events still yet to go ahead - such as the IMAN Ball, China Pride Festival, and Splash Pool Party.”

Auckland Pride also wishes to confirm they received advice from the Ministry of Health to end the Pride Party early, as the Director General of Health stated at yesterday’s press conference. “I received a call at 9:17pm and was advised to immediately end the event,” says Tweedie. “It wasn’t until 9:34pm that we received revised advice that we could continue as originally planned, by which time we had informed the crowd and announced we were closing the event.”

“Ensuring the safety of our communities has always been our number one priority, and we have been committed to following official health advice throughout the entire Festival. So while it’s gutting that the Pride Party was cut short when other events didn’t receive the same advice, we tautoko the Prime Minister’s comments and appreciate that this was a fast moving situation and mistakes can be made - and we’re grateful for her apology.”

Auckland Pride has been incredibly lucky to have had the majority of the Pride Festival occur at Alert Level One, with our communities coming together in the tens of thousands for the Big Gay Out, and Pride March & Party. Auckland Pride unequivocally support the decision made by the Government and implore our community to follow the restrictions that Alert Level Three mandates.
There were 17 Pride events scheduled to take place between 9pm Saturday 27 February and 11:59pm Sunday 7 March. Five of these events have been cancelled, and 12 have been postponed with updated dates to be announced. Auckland Pride are continuing to work with these event organisers as they postpone their events for a second time and recognise the challenges for our community based event organisers. A full list of these is provided below.

The Auckland Pride website remains the best source of up to date information on the status of events, and as organisers navigate this uncertainty Auckland Pride want to reiterate that they have planned for this eventuality. Auckland Pride will continue to place the safety of our communities at the heart of their decision making, and continue to provide regular, transparent updates.
 

Cancelled Events:

• Pride After Party (In the Dark) - 27 Feb
• Whānau Drop Ins at the Gallery - 28 Feb
• GALS at the Gallery - 28 Feb
• Splice Presents Life Drawing - 1 & 8 March
• Rainbow Storytime - 1 March

Postponed Events - new dates to be announced:

• SPLASH! - 28 Feb
• Thank God for Pride - 28 Feb
• Code Switch - 4 March
• Drag Bingo - 4 March
• Religious Abuse & Conversion Therapy - 4 March
• IMAN Ball - 5 March
• Embroidery for crafty queers - 6 March
• Pride flag workshop - 6 March
• China Pride Festival:
  • Rainbow Night Market - 5 March
  • Self Explore - 6 March
  • China Pride Gala - 7 March
  • Rainbow Pet Gathering - 7 March

We know that this is a stressful time for our community, artists and event organisers. OUTLine continues to provide support by calling 0800 688 5463 between 6-9pm. We will get through this together, so look after yourselves, be kind, and let’s unite against COVID-19.