‘Proud’ night for organisers

Organisers of last month’s first Royal Pride Night hope to host another one ‘sooner rather than later’ after hailing the event a huge success.

The night was organised by LGBTQI advocacy group the Wimmera Pride Project at Horsham’s Royal Hotel to celebrate Pride Month in June.

Committee member Loucas Vettos said about 80 people attended the event, raising about $500 for the Wimmera Pride Project through raffles and donations.

He said the event had been extremely well received and was enjoyed by everyone who attended.

“I was really happy with the number of people from the rainbow community who came out to enjoy themselves and celebrate, but also the amount of allies we had come and party as well,” he said.

“It was beyond my expectations for our first Pride Night and how many people would come and support.

“We were in the Royal’s function room on the side and it was pretty full.”

Mr Vettos said the performances of drag queens from Melbourne’s Drags Aloud had provided one of the many highlights of the night.

“Watching them perform was so much fun,” he said.

“The content of the show was just so funny and entertaining, and their costumes and humour were great.

“It was so good to see other people’s reactions and responses, and watch them celebrate and enjoy themselves.

“The glitter station was a huge hit as well – everyone loved it.”

Mr Vettos said the Wimmera Pride Project planned to host more Pride Nights in the future.

“We definitely will be having another one later on in the year or early next year, but we certainly hope it will happen sooner rather than later,” he said.

“The Royal is definitely keen to have us back and they were encouraging us to do it out in the main room next time.

“For the first one we thought we’d just see how we went and used the spare function room, but we’re hopefully going to go out into the main space and make it bigger and better.”

Mr Vettos said the organising committee was talking to a potential sponsor for its next event and encouraged any Wimmera businesses that wanted to support the Wimmera Pride Project to get on board.

He also thanked the Royal Hotel, ACE Radio and The Weekly Advertiser for supporting the first Pride Night.

“We can’t do these types of things without sponsorship and support,” he said.

“For everyone to get onboard was really cool.

“It’s great to see all the hard work that the Wimmera Pride Project committee put in pay off.”

Mr Vettos said anyone interested in attending regular Wimmera Pride Project events could come to ‘Queer Beers’ on the first Friday of every month at Horsham’s Exchange Hotel.