Auckland Pride is incredibly excited by the announcement that Tāmaki Makaurau is returning to Alert Level One, so that Pride Month can continue in full colour - with the Pride March and Pride Party on Saturday 27 February marking a return to mass celebrations of Pride!

“We’re excited to call our communities together this Saturday for the Auckland Pride March”, says Director of Pride Max Tweedie. “It’ll be an energetic demonstration of our communities’ collective calls - fighting for change, celebrating who we are, but most of all being together safely in a way that hardly anyone else can. We invite everyone to join us down at the Auckland Pride Party to dance the night away with an incredible lineup of DJs and Drag Artists, celebrating together in Aotea Square. With postponements now spreading Pride across March and April - there’s even more reason to celebrate!”

The Pride March and Pride Party is free for everyone to participate in on Saturday, however registrations are essential for contact tracing through Eventbrite. Auckland Pride can’t wait to see the full colour of our community as thousands march and party this weekend.

Auckland Pride and Proud Centres are also excited to announce that the IMAN Ball will now take place next week, on Friday 5 March at the ASB Tennis Arena. In doing so, Auckland Pride are also releasing an additional free 200 tickets so that more of our communities can experience the excellence of the House of IMAN after selling out in less than a day.

Just like the IMAN Ball, many events have announced their postponement dates into March and April, spreading our Pride Programme farther than ever before! While Auckland Pride aren’t officially expanding their Festival dates, these are still Auckland Pride events the Festival are excited to share with our community and hope to see incredible support for. Tickets originally purchased will still be valid for these dates - a full list of postponements is provided below:

New dates for postponed Auckland Pride events:

IMAN Ball - now 5 March (Was 19 Feb)
China Pride Festival - now 5-7 March (Was 19-21 Feb)
Rainbow Night Market - now 5 March (Was 19 Feb)
Self Explore Workshop - now 6 March (Was 20 Feb)
China Pride Gala - now 7 March (Was 20 Feb)
Pride Caribbean Carnival - now 12 March (Was 20 Feb)
Rainbow Pet Gathering - now 7 March (Was 21 Feb)
Gals and Enby Pals Skate Demo - now 17 April (Was 21 Feb)
Proud Voices on Screen - now 17 April (Was 21 Feb)
Queer Cuts - now 19 April (Was 22 Feb)
Over My Dead Body: UNINVITED - now 14-17 April (Was 24-27 Feb)
After Hours in the Museum for Pride - now 25 March (Was 24 Feb)

Previously announced new dates can be found here

Auckland Pride would like to thank the communities of South Auckland who showed up to get tested, and acted quickly in response to this latest outbreak - once again demonstrating their leadership in ensuring the safety and wellbeing of Tāmaki Makaurau. They also want to thank the Government, Health Officials, everyone that works across Healthline, contact tracing teams, ESR, and our community testers that made this swift response possible - thank you for making Pride Unstoppable!

Auckland Pride want to reiterate that it will continue to take all of us to Make Pride Unstoppable. They are asking audiences to keep registering in advance of free events, keep scanning QR codes, turn bluetooth tracing on, washing hands, and staying home if sick. Following this advice, especially around scanning QR codes and bluetooth tracing, enables fast and effective contact tracing that has enabled our swift return to level one, and could prevent us moving levels in future.

Auckland Pride March
Saturday 27 February, 4pm
Albert Park

Auckland Pride Party
Saturday 27 February, 6-11pm
Aotea Square

Full details about logistics and media accreditation at both events are to come.