Creating community events for Pride 2027

Written By Joanna McLeod

Your Pride committee is currently very busy planning our signature events for 2027, but they’re not all that makes the festival great. It’s also you, our community. There’s no way we’d be able to create the 100+ events that we’ve had in past years by ourselves. Expressions of Interest for community events will open on Monday! Maybe you’re thinking about an event you’d like to see at WPF 2027? Maybe you could even create it yourself!

Okay, hold on, before you run away screaming or trembling in fear. Your event does not have to be a 6000+ person fair. It doesn’t have to be a multi-act stage production. Half a dozen people having a cosy, civilised discussion on queer politics would absolutely count as a Wellington Pride Festival event too. Your event could be any size - all it has to do is meet our inclusion and diversity policy.

A beginner’s guide to how to

But of course, we want it to be as easy as possible for our community to create the events they want to see as part of Pride, so we’ve put together a beginner’s guide to creating Pride events. Take a look at it now and start your thinking. We also have a guide to making your events more accessible, to make sure you’re considering the 1 in 3 members of the Rainbow community who are disabled.

Pride HQ - a Hub for Queers

Once again we’ll be operating a physical hub during the Festival, and you’ll be able to use it for your small and affordable events. More information about the Hub space will come as soon as we have it, but for now, know we may even be able to help you out with material costs for things like craft workshops. Talk to us!

Ask us anything

We’re also running an online Q&A session next week, on Zoom at 7pm on Wednesday 14 October. Join us to ask us any questions you might have, to connect with other people considering creating events or to discuss how your events can come to life.

Ideas for events our community has asked for

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but more like some ideas to get your brain juices going:

  • Queer parenting meet-up

  • Dykes vs Divas sports ball: A bunch of lesbians playing sports ball against drag queens

  • Board game evenings

  • Meditation

  • Lunchtime dance parties

  • Scavenger hunts

  • Book clubs

  • Public art installation or murals

  • More events for kids

  • Bigger dance parties

  • Smarty Pants on queer culture topics

  • A version of Shut Up & Write for queer writers

  • Gay ceilidh!

  • Terrarium building

  • Drag makeup workshops

  • Protests.

We can’t wait to see what you’re planning!

Joanna McLeod
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