Newsletter #15 - 10 June
Welcome back to regular service!
We’ve had a break! It was definitely very needed. But now your committee is hard at work once again - not just to prepare for the 2027 Festival, but also to bring queer joy and community to our city year round. Have you missed us? We missed you!
So let’s get right into it. Time to reheat WPF!
Joanna McLeod
Chair
Newsletter contents
Meet your new co-chair
AGM date
Please take our survey
National Day of Action
Festival dates for next year
Other things happening in our community
Meet Molly, the new co-chair of Wellington Pride Festival
In very marvelous news, last month the committee elected Molly to be co-chair along with Joanna.
“The Festival is such an integral part of what makes Pōneke, Pōneke, and I want to do all I can to keep it sustainable and going from strength to strength for years to come.
Getting involved in Out in the City a couple of years ago showed me just how much sheer love and determination goes into bringing the festival to life. It’s a great team to be a part of, and an incredibly rewarding experience to give a little joy back to the community.”
Find out more about what co-chairs means for the festival over on our website.
Save the date: AGM on 16 August
Here’s your extremely advance notice that Wellington Pride Festival’s AGM will be held on the afternoon of Sunday 16 August - location TBC. Come along to hear about our financials, elect new committee members and discuss our plans for the next Festival. We’ll keep you updated closer to the time of course!
Have you taken our 2026 attendee survey?
Okay, this will absolutely be the last time we ask. But one of the things we want to do at our AGM is report back on our attedee survey like we did last year - and so in order to do that, we need to have people actually tell us how the 2026 Wellington Pride Festival was for them.
So please, do take our survey! It shouldn’t take you very long and it really helps guide us as to what our community is after.
Stop the Gender Definitions Bill
Our trans & intersex communities face a new attack in the form of NZ First’s Definitions of Woman and Man Bill. This bill attempts to legally reduce trans & intersex people to their recorded or assigned sex at birth, and prevent them from existing as trans in public spaces. It poses a substantial threat to trans & intersex rights and the safety of both trans, intersex and cis communities.
Here’s three things you can do about it:
Make a submission against the Bill. Qtopia have a really useful guide to making your submission, along with more information about why this is so important.
Join Queer Endurance in Defiance’s Day of Action Rally this Saturday, 13 June.
Check that you and everyone you know is enrolled to vote in the General Election. More information and key dates are on the Electoral Commission website.
Dates for the 2027 Festival
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We’re only just beginning our planning for the 2027 Festival that will take place 5 - 21 March, but to encourage you to start thinking about your contributions too, here are the dates for our Signature Events!
5 March: Dawn Ceremony
5 March - 21 March: Rainbow Windows of Wellington
6 March: Wellington Pride Parade
13 March: Out in the City
20 March: Pride Youth Ball
21 March: Pride Picnic featuring Pooches in the Park.
In our next newsletter, we hope to share more information about committee vacancies and also the volunteer teams we’ll be assembling to bring the Festival to life.
Happening in the community
Now: Out on the Shelves
15-19 June: Schools Pride Week
27 June: Gingers Lesbian Pop-up Bar
July: Forty Years of Love
4 July: Butch Club Clothing Swap
It’s 271 sleeps until WPF 2027!
PS: What do you call someone who doesn’t believe it’s June yet?
A May-Sayer.
