Pride WA has chosen the theme for its 2008 Festival: reINvention. The organisation hopes this theme will encourage the imagination and creativity of its participants, particularly of the annual Pride Parade, which has lost its glitz and glamour in recent years.

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Andrew Baietta, Co-President of the organisation, says “Pride WA this year has had to rethink its strategies across all platforms – the way we manage our finances, the way we connect with and therefore represent Western Australia’s GLBT community and the ways in which we can build a sustainable future for the organisation as we head into Pride WA’s 20th anniversary celebrations in 2009.

“This theme gives us the opportunity to reflect on past successes and stumbles and reINvent Pride for the future”.

Since the law reforms passed by the Labor Government in 2002, and this year’s planned reforms by the Rudd Federal Government, the GLBT community seems to have achieved quite a lot of what it has been fighting for over the past 30 years or so.

But as fellow Co-President Sharlene Dixon reminds us, “This doesn’t mean the fight is over. As a community, we need to rethink our strategies, and rebuild to strengthen our resolve to keep up the fight until we are all considered equal in this world”.

The wider WA community can also relate to Pride’s theme of reINvention due to our state’s much talked about boom period. “Our state is growing faster than we can cope with. Construction and reconstruction sites are everywhere. The current government are rebuilding, reshaping and reinventing our city and Pride WA wants to be a part of it” says Baietta. For the new Pride committee this theme has already begun with the reINvention of the organisation’s website. An exciting fundraising event is also planned for August that will bring the theme alive. “Perth’s GLBT community can come together at this event and hopefully get as excited about this year’s Pride theme as we are” says Dixon.

The theme will be officially announced as part of this year’s Annual Quiz Night on Tuesday July 1, 2008 at The Italian Club. Information on how you can get involved in this year’s festival and ideas for applications of this theme can be found in the recently released Participation Packs, available online at www.pridewa.asn.au.

“We want this year to be bigger and better and in order to achieve this we need a greater effort from everyone involved. We hope this theme can help us and the community bring our parade back to life, and get WA excited for the 20th anniversary celebrations next year” says Dixon.