After having travelled to the brink of no-return, Pride is now back with a gust of gusto sure to see it gather strength, momentum and respect as it heads toward the 20th anniversary of the Pride Festival next year. But until then Pride Festival Convenor Kieran Bycroft is slowly rebuilding the festival, or rather ‘reinventing’ it as this years theme – reinvention – suggests. And the result is sure to be electrifying, albeit localised and controlled. All up, it’s a stellar program, but not one which will see Pride overextending its capacity or current ability.

‘The overall vision this year was to kind of revive the festival after what has happened in recent years,’ explained Bycroft in regards to the what the Pride committee – including himself – hoped to achieve ‘Just going on with our overall theme of reinvention we just wanted to revive Pride and Pride’s standing in Perth but we also has to work within our means this year as well. We’re presenting a few events and sticking to what we know so we can present a full calendar.

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‘The big highlight for me is the film festival. I’ve worked really hard this year on bringing us a line up of films we can be proud of. So many times when you go to gay and lesbian film festivals there’s a big cringe factor and I’ve really tried to avoid that this year. So I’ve brought together some good quality films, some documentaries which cover a wide range of topics. It’s also a very inclusive film festival: we have gay cinema, lesbian cinema, trans* cinema and a documentary about bisexuality as well. All bases are covered.’

Also on the cards is a whole lot of speeding dating for both the boys and girls thanks to Noi Restaurant and Bar138, a wonderful exhibition of works from Liza Bradbury and Rona Chadwick plus a book reading with the ever holy Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Throw in a whole series of workshops from the WA Aids Council, an open day at The Freedom Centre plus Pride meets Spring in the Valley and it all starts to mount up somewhat impressively. But it’s perhaps the Eastern state appearances which will prove the biggest highlights for this years festival.

‘There are three acts coming over from the Eastern states,’ confirmed Bycroft. ‘Ex-Perth boy Zac Gower is bringing over his one man show, Confessions of a Lying, Cheating Pervert, for two nights at Lazy Susan’s. It’s got a bit of sass to it I think. And the same audiences who go to see Stephen Dawson’s show (The Adventures of Butt Boy & Tigger) at PICA will probably get a kick out of Zac’s show.

‘The third show coming over is Her Aching Heart by Wishing Well Productions from Melbourne. But to tell the truth this time around if it wasn’t for the persistence of Ruth Caterella from Her Aching Heart I don’t think we’d have herself and Stephen coming over because we were having great difficulty finding a venue, and Ruth’s persistence made me look harder and harder until we found something.

Bycroft describes Stephen Dawson’s theatre as being specifically written for gay males and is so unique in that it is a gay run and owned theatre company specifically producing gay work. ‘Ruth and Wishing Well Productions appear to be the same deal, but for a lesbian market,’ Bycroft added.

The overall hope for Pride this year is creating something truly sustainable, something that will transfer to not only next year with a degree of ease, but to the years to come as well. However, Pride’s strength lies only in how well and succinctly it reconnects with a community that had started to lose faith in it.

‘We’re trying to rebuild some of the events like the film festival so that we can rebuild some of the support from the community,’ confirmed Bycroft. ‘I do have something big up my sleeve for next year that I don’t want to give too much away about, but I am quite excited. But as I was saying, we have tried to work within our means this year to produce a few events and do them well rather than try and fill the calendar with risky products. That way we can have some money up our sleeve to make sure next years 20th annual Pride Festival is bigger and something that we can all be really proud off.’

For full Pride Festival listings visit www.pridewa.asn.au or grab a Festival guide from any of the venues around town or Planet Books. You can also download a copy of the Pride Festival guide by clicking here

Scott-Patrick Mitchell