Perth’s PrideFEST might have just finished a few hours ago, but Western Australia’s next Pride celebration is just around the corner. Albany Pride is sporting an impressive line up for it’s 2022 festival.
The Albany Pride Festival will run from 18th – 27th February and it’s filled with events, so move fast to book your accommodation before it all sells out.
Committee members Lupo Prenzato and Millie Reid recently chatted to OUTinPerth about what’s in the program and how their festival has grown over the last five years.
Back in 2016 the first outing for Albany Pride was a Drag Queen Bingo event.
“We went from that to having effectively the biggest Pride in regional Australia in terms of number of events.” Lupo said. “We have 20-plus events as part of our calendar. I did go to see Darwin’s Pride, Hobart’s Pride, and they don’t have as many events as we do.”
“We really had the vision to do something big. We luckily enough had a bit more budget this year, so we said ‘You know what, let’s just something sensational.'”
While the Drag Queen Bingo is still on the menu, the team have ambitiously added some other big events as well.
“We’ve got quite a few new events, as well as the return of some old favorites. We’ve got Drag Bingo, still a real favorite on on our lineup, but we’ve sort of gone a bit bigger with a couple of our events this year, and we’re hoping that they’re equally as popular.” Millie said.
A board games night, themed nights at local bars, fitness events, comedy shows with Alissia Marsh, Aves Robins and Simone Springer, Drag Queen Storytime, a massive party, boat cruises, a show from the amazing Alter Boy and circus troupe Kinetica are just a few of the events scheduled.
While in previous years the festival has run over a few weeks, this time round it’s condensed over two weekends, meaning you could head down to Albany for 10 days for a Pride themed holiday.
“Previously, where our festival has been spaced out kind of over a few more weeks. this time we’ve tried to really actively fill both weekend so that the people that are attending have a lot of options for events to choose from.
“We’ve really tried to create something for everybody in our program, and on the first weekend in particular, we’ve got a huge range of sporting events and a couple of boat cruises on each day.” Millie said.
One of the big events added for 2022 is a Gala Dinner with Burlesque and Boylesque performers, which is sure to be one of the highlights of the fortnight.
Head to their website to find out all about their festival, and put in your annual leave request for February 2022.
OIP Staff
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