Human rights and LGBTIQ+ people are under attack all over the world. In 2018, the Auckland Pride Festival and Parade will make space and march for peace, love and unity.
Moving forward into its sixth year, the Auckland Pride Festival is New Zealand’s largest and loudest social and cultural programme of events for our Rainbow communities – which includes people identifying as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex, takatāpui, whakawāhine, tangata ira tāne, fa’afafine, fakaleiti, akava’ine, māhū, vaka sa lewa lewa, rae rae, fiafifine, fakafifine, palopa, kathoey, hijra, baklâ, genderfluid, genderqueer, pansexual, asexual, queer and questioning – as well as our whānau, family and friends.
The Festival will open with a Takatāpui Māori Dawn Ceremony on Friday 2 February, followed that evening by the glittering Auckland Pride Gala at Q Theatre on Queen Street.
Major events are already confirmed, with much-loved programmes returning to the Festival in 2018: Bear New Zealand Week will run from 6-11 February, Same Same But Different Writer’s Festival is scheduled for 9 and 10 February, the Heroic Garden Festival takes place on 10 and 11 February, and the ever-popular Ending HIV Big Gay Out returns to Coyle Park on Sunday 11 February.
The Festival’s biggest and most high-profile event, the Auckland Pride Parade will travel the length of Ponsonby Road on Saturday 17 February.
