Marlborough Express - Weekend Express
Blenheim hosting first Pride Wairau Festival
Blenheim will host its first Pride Festival this winter with a range of events to celebrate the region’s diverse rainbow community.
Pride Wairau 2024 will run from June 14 to 23, to coincide with the nationwide Schools’ Pride Week Aotearoa − an annual event that celebrates rainbow students, staff and whānau.
The festival will kick off with a dawn opening ceremony at Blenheim’s Market Place, on the corner of High St and Market St.
Other events include a community day at Marlborough Youth Trust, a Supporting Rainbow Communities workshop at Blenheim’s Te Kahu o Waipuna library, a party at Hotel d’Urville, and a Rainbow Rally Pride Walk along the banks of the Taylor River on the final day, a Sunday.
Volunteer organisers Gabe Bertogg, Briar Bradfield-Watson and Amber NyeHingston said the journey in getting Marlborough’s first Pride festival up and running hadn’t been plain sailing.
“I’d emailed loads of people and I felt like I was getting zero responses,” Bertogg said.
“But I still felt maybe we could go somewhere with this, and I felt like we could do something.”
Bertogg said the turning point came when they enlisted the support of Jesse North, the general manager of Thomas’s Department Store. “We then started meeting every Wednesday and we really have made huge progress,” she said.
Nye-Hingston agreed, saying North’s input made a “huge difference”.
“At the second meeting, Jesse showed up and he was like ‘I know this person, and this person, and Thomas’s can do this’,” she said. “So, we were like, this is getting real, and we can really do this.”
North said gradually, businesses and national organisations started to offer their support and financial assistance, such as Indevin Group and the Burnett Foundation Aotearoa.
“Now it’s snowballing, because others have seen one or two businesses come on board, they’re going ‘OK, this isn’t such a scary thing for us to support, it’s actually a really incredible thing for us to support’.”
Other companies and organisations now involved included the Blenheim police, It’s All Good Brew coffee shop, advocacy group InsideOUT Kōaro, the Marlborough District Council, and the Marlborough Multicultural Centre, among many others.
Nye-Hingston, who moved to Blenheim from Auckland with her partner who was in the armed forces, said they also had the backing of the NZ Defence Force’s OverWatch organisation, which supports the LGBTQI+ community and their whānau.
North said the team was initially worried about the reception a Pride Festival in Marlborough would receive, and whether anybody would turn up to the events but feedback had allayed any such fears.
“I’ve had a few people come to me and say ‘I think you’re going to be surprised with how big this becomes, even for your first year how much support you’re going to get’, It hasn’t all been smooth sailing but we’re here now, which is awesome.”
Bradfield-Watson said they were “very much inviting the whole community” to take part in Pride Wairau. “Whether you are LGBTQIA+, an ally or just somebody who cares about diversity and inclusion, everybody in the community is welcome.”