I decided to go along to this event at All Seasons Holiday Park in Hannahs Bay with my camera.
it certainly was a fun family day out with heaps of entertainment, fantastic costumes and peaceful vibes.
It only cost a gold coin donation.
The sun was blazing, there was a crowd of around 600
Bay Pride Festival 2012 is not only a festival for the gay community, but celebrates the diverse nature of our wider community. Anyone is welcome to attend, so invite your mum, dad, brother, sister, friends… anyone important to you, that you would like to share this day with. Bay Pride Festival 2012 is a family day out with friends.
Don’t be frightened by our Drag Queens, they are all kind hearted. The Queens will be there to host, entertain plus look “fabulous”. Many a costume change throughout the day. We plan to have the day filled with performance on stage, competitions, and activities to keep the young one’s entertained. Face painting, best dressed fairies princesses and a best dressed pet competition
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| These are some of the photos I captured |
Everyone just seemed to come towards me.
Buffy and Bimbo
And they were so willing to pose.
I loved the colour and the amazing makeup. All of the "girls" looked absolutely fabulous.
The food on the VIP tent was fantastic,
Many people had shoes like sky scrapers. .
It was a shoe fanciers paradise.
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| The hats and head adornments were sizzling |
Mesmerising detail, this guy went to a lot of trouble
Nice little area to let everything breathe at the front
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| Lovely bright orange and pink together. |
Rainbow
Very sophisticated , she could have been at the racesCute dog show with lovely organiser , how did she get a matching parasol?
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| Family day for all, fun for the kids to see who would win best behaved dog prize. |
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| Paraplegic dog still makes friends |
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| Stunning ring. |
Hopefully it will happen next year and I can go take some more shots and more people will turn up.
Just remember you don't have to be gay to go, it's open to everyone who wants to have a light -hearted time and be entertained.
Everyone will make you feel welcome.
Creative Quotes of the day
Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.
Dr. Seuss
“Why is it that, as a culture, we are
more comfortable seeing two men holding guns than holding hands?”
~ Ernest Gaines
“I'm a supporter of gay rights. And not a closet supporter either. From the time I was a kid, I have never been able to understand attacks upon the gay community. There are so many qualities that make up a human being... by the time I get through with all the things that I really admire about people, what they do with their private parts is probably so low on the list that it is irrelevant.”
― Paul Newman
More information about the event incase you are interested
Bay of Plenty PRIDE Festival 2012
The PRIDE festival is not only a festival for the gay community, but celebrates the diverse nature of our wider community. Anyone is welcome to attend, so invite your mum, dad, brother, sister, friends… anyone important to you, that you would like to share this day with. The PRIDE festival is a family day out with friends.The PRIDE festival is first and foremost all about having fun, our community being able to laugh at itself, sharing, being more open minded and a wee bit educational in a light hearted way.
Although there is a lot of fun to be had on the day, there is also a serious side to our festival.
As a community we would like to raise awareness of two serious issues facing our community:
- Youth suicide
- Safe sex message
Don’t be frightened by our Drag Queens, they are all kind hearted. The Queens will be there to host, entertain plus look “fabulous”. Many a costume change throughout the day.
We plan to have the day filled with performance on stage, competitions, and activities to keep the young one’s entertained. Face painting, best dressed fairies / princesses and a best dressed pet competition / fashion show.
The New Zealand AIDS Foundation are supporting the event with their “get it on” campaign promoting safe sex. The PRIDE festival is based loosely on the “Big Gay Out” event held in Auckland each February.
The day festival will end around 6.00pm. However, the celebrations will continue into the early hours of the following morning with a Dance Party in town, DJ and drag show performances. For those “young at heart”, a second venue will provide a quieter space.
The Bay Pride Festival Charitable Trust are organizing the event, and are inviting expressions of interest from stall holders, food stands, entertainers, buskers and other community organisations.
1 comment:
Love the pix!
I was pleasantly surprised to read your Weekender piece on men wearing skirts. I enjoy wearing skirts; I find them more comfortable and lighter than trousers. They have fabulous potential for style and creativity in so many ways, definitely better than any tie (having said that I generally prefer plainish styles.)
Why not in public? In short, it's too difficult. I am not interested in dealing with people staring, facetious comments, awkward reactions, and having to explain and justify. At home my wife says it makes her feel sick and there is no room for discussion, so I quite look forward to being left home alone!
I have had occasion to wear a skirt in public; the way men usually do this is to do over-the-top frilly and silly (think Men in Tutus.) It is pure parody, everybody laughs, and afterwards everybody knows it was not for real and can feel safe. I made things a bit more difficult by simply wearing my favourite long denim skirt, chatting and behaving just like me. Some people seemed puzzled by this as the expectation seemed to be that being in a skirt, I should put on some sort of act.
Fitting can be a bit tricky as, having no hips, there is approximately zero tolerance for the waist measurement unless it's elastic. Once I tried on a couple of skirts in a second hand shop in Cuba Street, Wellington and the assistant asked how I got on. I said they were too tight and a struggle to get into. "Well," she said, "that's what us girls have to put up with all the time!"
I am not gay (should I need to say that?) nor am I flamboyant, Unfortunately, the way that people link clothing and accessories with sex and gender tends to be quite rigid (remember the fuss around *that* handbag affair a couple of years ago?) so I don't see men wearing skirts becoming widespread any time soon largely because of this conflation (But I live in hope!!!)
j
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