Pride WA appears to have successfully lived up to it’s theme for 2008 ‘Reinvention’, hosting a well supported month-long festival that appears to have avoided the financial and organisational difficulties that have plagued the organisation in recent years.

This year Pride WA Inc introduced new strategies to ensure the financial viability of the organisation and the events that it runs, including introducing an entry fee for Fairday, employing a professional event manger for Fairday, collaborating with an established GLBT venue to present the party, and running a separate women’s party.

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Male Co-President of Pride, Andrew Baietta, told OUTinPerth that the new initiatives had ‘been extremely successful. Fairday now supports itself and was seen by some as one of the most professionally run Fairdays to date, so we feel that employing the event planner and charging the entry fee were both worthwhile initiatives. Collaborating with Connections has ensured that we could still put on a Pride Party, but take no risk and a guaranteed income, [which was] definitely a good move this year.’

Despite competition from a large Parade After-Party hosted by The Court Hotel, attendances at Pride after parties increased significantly this year. According to Andrew Baietta, 1700 people attended the two official Pride events at Connections and The Italian Club – more than double the number of people at the 2007 party at Belmont Park.

Although the 2008 committee inherited an extremely precarious financial situation at the beginning of the year, Baietta described Pride’s current financial position as ‘extremely positive’, going on to add that ‘income is up 25% on last year and expenses are down 20%. Pride has cash in the bank and 2008 was profitable. Once we have done some cash flow projections we will be in a position to determine how that surplus is used.’

The committee along with Pride’s strategic planner, Trudy Turner, are working to ensure that Pride has some continuity going into the future. Baietta explained, ‘we have already started thinking about the 20th annual festival next year, including a theme. We don’t intend to stop just because Pride month is over, there’s lots of work still to be done and I think momentum is crucial to ensuring the long term success, because ideas don’t just stop coming.’

He went on to say ‘providing everyone at the AGM is happy with our performance to date, you can expect great things next year. 2008 was about reinventing Pride whilst remaining very conscious of the finances, we have successfully done that. In 2009 you will see Pride really bounce back and present something spectacular.’

On a personal note, Andrew Baietta credited his involvement with Pride as having opened his eyes to the amount of work that goes into an organisation like Pride. He said ‘… in 2008 I have had more of a behind-the-scenes view of this “community” and it’s been quite fascinating. I think we often take for granted the dedication and passion that so many people in the community have, and Pride has helped me to see that. I’d strongly recommend anyone who is passionate about Pride putting their hand up to join the committee in future years.’

Information on how to join can be found on the Pride Website www.pridewa.asn.au