Big changes are in the pipeline for the Pride festival and parade.
‘We’ve known for a while that people wanted change, and we’ve listened to those people and responded,’ said Pride co-president Charles Denham.
‘These things can’t happen immediately, but we’ve been pretty much unchanged for 20 years now and it’s time we looked at radically altering the format.’
As of 2011, the Pride Parade will be moved from ‘unpredictable’ October to reliably balmy February, and held under the aegis of what is by then expected to be a fully fledged Perth Fringe Festival.
The Pride Festival will continue in its current October timeslot, with Fair Day pushed back in the timetable to complete the festival schedule- avoiding the traffic jam of events that take place over the Queen’s Birthday long weekend, where it has traditionally been held.
Numbers were substantially down at last year’s Fair Day, a decline that Denham puts down, in part, to it competing with the popular Park Life festival.
The traditional post-parade parties will then be rescheduled to coincide with the end of Fair Day.
‘This year will be similar to the last, but with a shorter festival and Fair Day being held later in October, with the Parade at the end of October for the last time; it’s too much to make all the changes in one year’, said Denham.
Last year’s festival and party numbers were disappointing, with Pride again recording a small (but manageable) loss.
While proud of both (‘the festival was probably the best, and fullest, ever; we didn’t do anything wrong’), Denham puts the lacklustre financial returns down to the economic climate that prevailed at the time.
‘Nobody in any sort of business had a good year last year’, Denham said, ‘though we probably tried to do too much.’
Denham sees numerous advantages in splitting the parade from the festival, including the ability to split the financial risk, as well as splitting a workload that many find untenable through the month of October.
Pride has been consulting widely throughout the community to determine the best way forward, including two recent well-attended public forums.
‘People are always going to take pot-shots, but we welcome comment and we welcome anyone who can tell us how to do things better.’
Denham places particular emphasis on the need to involve young people in the event.
To this end, Denham is enthused by the recent election of two of the youngest members ever onto the Pride board, Paul Hunt (known for his work on RTR’s All Things Queer) and Shane Jeffrey.
‘Too many young gay people don’t feel the need to be involved in the community any more.
‘They don’t even need to come out any more and can just do it all sitting at home on the internet’, Denham laughs.
‘At the same time though, we also need our older members involved.
‘We need our mentors and our role models, and we need to make sure our history isn’t forgotten.
‘Despite things being much better now than ever before, the community still needs a Pride, if only to ensure we don’t lose what we’ve worked so hard for’, Denham said.
‘If anything, the community feels the want of an issue to rally around.
‘For some people it’s gay marriage, but just as many gay people are against it as for it.
‘Personally, I’d like to see the community take back the word queer as an all-inclusive description.
‘Far fewer clumsy acronyms, if nothing else’, he laughed.
Pride’s new board consists of Charles Denham, male co-president; Sharlene Dixon, female co-president, women’s officer; Beth Matisons, secretary, membership; Mark Hamer, treasurer, media liaison; Wendy Houlahan, grants, festival; Jason Chrisp, marketing, community group liaison; Sarah Smith, sponsorship, grants; Paul Hunt, youth, marketing; and Shane Jefferies, membership, sponsorship.
Steven Carter
