WPF 2025 - survey feedback report
50 people responded to our survey about the Wellington Pride Festival 2025. This is what they had to say.
If it’s easier for you, feel free to download this report as a PDF.
TL:DR - the executive summary
50 people replied to our survey about their experiences at Wellington Pride Festival 2025.
These people were predominantly Pākeha and from Wellington City. A range of ages and Rainbow identities were represented.
The most popular of our signature events was Out in the City. Respondents had differing opinions about Odlins Plaza as a venue.
We received a lot of useful feedback about what can be improved at future festivals. Better communication was the most common theme.
Respondents suggested a range of events they’d like to see, so we will be working with our community to help support others to create these and other events.
As a result of this survey, as well as our own observations as a board, we have a bunch of initiatives already underway to make next year even better.
In this report:
About the survey
Following the Wellington Pride Festival 2025, we released an online survey available to anyone who had attended any events.
The survey was promoted through social media and our newsletter. Participants were self-selecting, and needed to be online to know about it, so we are aware of the limitations of this data. Still, we think it’s important to be able to get feedback, and will treat responses as a snapshot rather than an empirical view.
It wasn’t until after this survey had run that we discovered results from a similar survey in 2020 - if we had known about this, it would have been good to repeat questions to track any changes in sentiment. But we can build on consistency next year.
Who took the survey?
We had a grand total of 50 respondents. This is the same number of survey respondents in 2020, so that’s nice.
Here are some demographics on the respondents.
Age range
The largest group of survey respondents were aged 25-34, followed by 35-44 year olds. Only one person over the age of 65 took the survey.
Ethnicity
Our ethnicity question was an open field as we didn’t want to box anyone in. For the purposes of having a quick answer, we have aggregated answers. The numbers add up to more than 50 to denote multiple ethnicities.
Would this method probably make a real statistician uncomfortable? Yes. But does it allow us to see at a glance that we need to do better at reaching Pacific and Asian communities? Also yes.
Identity
When it came to identity, people were able to select as many as applied as well as write in their own answers.
Because of our natural hesitance to commercial marketing surveys that ask about gender (with only binary boxes to tick), we didn’t include gender questions and therefore didn’t think to include Trans or Nonbinary as options, though of course those can be very important parts of people’s identities that they may want counted. We also didn’t think to include takāpui as an option, which was a massive oversight. We will do better on that next year.
Where in Wellington were respondents from?
One thing that we are interested in is where people come from to attend a Pride event. Our focus will remain on Wellington City, but it is useful to have the data available to support anyone planning events in other areas.
What did they go to?
There were around 70 events total as part of the Wellington Pride Festival, so it was always going to be hard to capture details of every single experience. We chose to focus on our own signature events for these questions, as well as seeing how many events people went to in general.
Number of events people went to
While we are pleased that for people who only attended one event, most them chose Out in the City, arguably our defining event (especially given its historical ties back to the Gay & Lesbian Newtown Fair in 1986 which was the start of the Wellington Pride Festival), it does lead us to the question “why aren’t people attending more events?”.
Obviously there are a number of factors that go into people’s attendance - work, life, other events - but it does also suggest there’s space to develop events that cater to more people and/or to make sure we are informing the community better about what’s available.
Of course, we are not the only event producers as part of Wellington Pride, so perhaps this is us laying down the wero - let’s hope to see more people attending more events next year!
Our signature events
From a dozen or so people on the summit of Matairangi for the dawn ceremony launch, to the many thousands who passed through Out in the City over the course of the day, the core events of the Wellington Pride Festival had very different capacities and levels of attendance.
Feedback
Most of the survey was open text boxes so that people could talk about what was most important to them. As such, the rest of this report will be qualitative rather than quantitative - vibes not numbers.
Accessibility
This year we put a particular focus on making the festival more accessible, and it seems we did alright in that respect.
“Best thing: The incredible accessibility information you produced for your website”
However, some respondents told us that they had issues with accessibility around the Hīkoi.
“The hīkoi was not very accessible, far too long of a walk and didn't go at a pace that was accommodating for those with mobility needs that didn't just want to sit in a bus.”
“For the hīkoi, it was great that there was a bus for disabled passengers but only space for one or two wheelchairs, it would be good in future to have room for more wheelchair users next time! The route was also very long which makes it inaccessible to some people. At Waitangi Park, the route taken to leave is very difficult for wheelchair users, and going along the driveway is much more wheelchair accessible.”
Others wanted more low sensory spaces at busy events:
“I feel like the quiet spaces and the amount of space at each event could be improved - maybe if someone gets overwhelmed there could be a call, or saying that could be said and then transferred to the marshalls. More music options too :)”
“the small space very much triggered a sensory overall and I wanted to leave soon after I arrived.”
Best things about the festival
It was lovely to see the range of best things about the festival experience coming through on the survey, reflecting all the best parts of our communities.
Kuru Pounamu: “To see that celebration of takatāpui and POC queer-ness was so beautiful and I smiled almost the entire time. I can not express in words how absolutely wonderful that was. As a person who spends a decent amount of time in LGBTTQIA+ spaces, I often feel like my identity as takatāpui, and the inclusion of Māori, and the acknowledgement of tangata whenua is pushed aside for Western approaches to queer identities, so for this to have opened so powerfully centering those voices, it was absolutely fucking amazing. “
“My favourite parts were how loud and courageous the community was even when Destiny Church might've brought us down, and how we survived rain through shine and even the small performers which are local.”
“Pride parade and seeing even more people show their support for our rainbow community. The whole month felt like a vibe. Show the absolute zero tolerance for bullying our trans whanau.”
“Making friends and feeling like a part of the queer Wellington community, and helping people by volunteering at out in the city”.
Things that could be improved
We knew before we undertook the survey that we need to do better with communication - both in how much of it we provided and how early (or not) we did it. It still made us laugh when someone who said they wanted to hear more from us chose not to provide us with an email address for our new newsletter!
For this question, a number of people suggested specific events that they wanted to see - we’ll address these further on. Other areas for suggested for improvement include:
More family events - though we’d like to clarify to one respondent that Burnett Foundation involvement in the Pride Picnic did not mean content on stage would be unsuitable for children. If events are marketed as family friendly, we definitely make sure that they are.
“The gala was phenomenal however I noticed the low turnout. Advertising what it is and about would be better as lots of community members thought it was like a gala dinner (so like corporate or old money vibes) and not just a glam opening with amazing performances.”
“It would be good to know for out in the city, the size of the space and the cost. That gives stallholders time to make sure they have enough $ for this as I knew a couple of vendors who couldn’t afford this which was a shame?”
“I always want the dates and call for events to be earlier (Oct or Nov?) so I know it's coming up and can organise an event.”
“Having night time events be closer to public transport bc that was the main reason I couldn't go to them”
“Performance/Event Production Quality”
Other respondents wanted more events earlier in the week, and also asked why some events were on the same day. This really comes down to availability of venues and producers, as well as how to fit 70+ events into two weeks.
Out in the City feedback
Feedback about the location for Out in the City was mixed. We chose to use Odlin’s Plaza as an outside venue lowers the risk of COVID spreading, and it makes the event more visible than being contained in a building (the ‘Out’ of Out in the City). We also believe concrete is easier for those with mobility problems to navigate than grass, especially with Wellington’s weather potentially bringing mud.
One person wrote that the best thing about the festival was “That Out in the City was no longer inside the MFC. The body odour and cramp conditions were gone and everything was accessible.”
“Out in the City was really great, it was nice having it outside again!”
“Good venue for out in the city.”
But on the other hand:
“I really liked how last year out in the city was inside of the Michael Fowler center. I felt it being outside this year was a lot more inconvenient due to the wind and there were a lot less stalls I think most likely due to needing a tent of some sort. All the stall holders were very frustrated by the wind and all of there stuff getting blown around. And there wasn’t comfortable places to sit and relax and watch the music as much as there was inside last year.”
“I wouldn't do the market by the waterfront again. The number of stalls that were blown around like crazy with the wind and it wasn't even like a terribly windy day could have been really bad for patrons as well as stall holders.”
“It was a bit crowded at Out in the City, I liked it better when it was at Frank Kitts Park, there was more room”
Ideas for the next festival
Wellington Pride Festival is for the community, by the community. This means the range of events held as part of the festival are really up to the community at large to produce, outside of our signature events.
If you’re reading this survey response, you could put on an event as part of Wellington Pride Festival. It doesn’t have to be on the scale of Out in the City - half a dozen queer people getting together to knit or talk politics or running a clothing swap would all be valid festival events!
For our part, we will be reaching out to various people and organisations about ideas for events. We’re also producing a guide to running your own events, as well as offering a workshop later in the year, so that we can help people to create other events for Wellington Pride Festival.
To get the brain juices going on what those events might be, here’s some verbatim suggestions from the survey about what people would like to see.
“The out in the pool dog event that use to happen, anything for queers that do not go to drag shows, political debates, book readings, queer movie festival, there was not much that celebrated queer culture.”
“Maybe a quieter event, where people can just sit and meet a little while doing something together. Open mic, or a crafting thing maybe? Even a like "pay this much for a sit down dinner" to meet others in the community.”
“The out in the pool dog event that use to happen, anything for queers that do not go to drag shows, political debates, book readings, queer movie festival, there was not much that celebrated queer culture.”
“Would love a sign-making event for the hīkoi, and maybe some workshops about effective and safe protesting/lobbying/petitioning etc. I would also love to see more events for/by the ace community.”
“I'd like an adult equivalent of the youth ball especially for those of us who never got to go to our ball as ourselves. I'd also love craft arvo/evening style events for adults.”
“There needs to be more indigenous queer events or lesbian. The number of my friends and family who want to go to events that are more open to them and are safe.”
“1) Vogue Ball. 2) Sports tournament. 3) Professionals dinner. 4) “Laneway” dance. 5) Something for older rainbow community to be part of.”
“Connecting with businesses to get them decorating and supporting Pride. Expand to Hutt and Porirua.”
“Workshops? Like vogue, drag, costuming, gender-affirming makeup, or activism workshops”
“More pop culture events celebrating nerds. More poetry and writing workshops or meets!”
“Night time socials that were sober, stuff specifically for the 35+”
“Educational events that teach us about wellingtons rainbow history”
“More dance - looking at the street DJ gigs in Cuba Dupa, more DJ dance gigs.”
“A drag story time, queer arts and crafts, zine making maybe? Quieter events overall”
“Maybe some stand up comedy.”
It should also be noted that some of the events asked for did actually happen this year (like a voguing workshop and a sign-making workshop), but we acknowledge that late additions to our events calendar may not have received as much attention, and we need to improve our communications in general.
What we’ll be doing to act on these results
We’ve already started a monthly newsletter, and created a news section on our website, so people can catch up with our most recent news without being at the mercy of social media algorithms.
We’ll continue to seek ways to partner with takatāpui and Māori in alignment with meeting our Te Whāriki vision.
We’ve announced the dates for the festival and our signature events already, and we’ll also be publishing a full calendar of lead-in times and deadlines well in advance of the festival.
We’re creating a guide to running your own events as part of the festival, and we’re also planning a workshop later this year for anyone interested but needing help.
As Out in the City is booked into Odlin’s Plaza again, we’ll make sure our communications to stallholders emphasise the need for them to bring weights for their own gazebos.
We’ll continue to keep accessibility front of mind, and work with all event producers to ensure full information about accessibility about all events is published in advance.
Thank you very much to everyone who took the time to fill in our survey. Your time and effort will help guide us to an even better festival next year!
