Snowbreeze, the Winter Dance Party held by Pride WA has faced a few negative repercussions – with Life Members claiming they failed to receive invitations for the night; and speeches at the launch of PRIDEFEST reportedly causing offence to previous Pride committee members and volunteers.
Already facing heat for low attendance, community members were asking about low profit margins that could harm the financial security of Pride WA.
In response to concerns, Alice Newport Holden, co-president of Pride, WA has told OUTinPerth – ‘While Snowbreeze did not raise us the finances we had hoped, we were able to engage with members of community, people are aware of the festival and they had fun.
‘Financially we are stable but we will definitely be exploring other fundraising opportunities up to and during the festival’, she said.
Older Life Members without email addresses missed out on invitations to the event; Newport-Holden assured OUTinPerth that everyone on Pride’s email list received an invitation.
Newport-Holden insists that criticisms of previous volunteers and workers were unintentional.
‘… we apologise if anyone feels disrespected. The intention of the speeches was to say that while Pride may have had some difficulties in the past, this year will be a positive year’, she said.
Other issues concerning the community include Pride WA members not receiving membership cards following renewal, Newport-Holden explained –
‘While we have been working extremely hard to get all of the memberships processed, we have hit a few hurdles along the way, with the physical resources being difficult to replenish. We are working hard to ensure that all memberships have been sent out’.
Do you think the speeches at the launch were offensive to previous committee members?
Read the speech from Male Co-President Paul van Leishout Hunt here and the speech from Female Co-President Alice Newport-Holden here.
Nadine Walker
