Thu 26 Feb 2015 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
Rotorua’s Chamber of Pride has taken out the Best Float in the 2015 Auckland Pride Parade. The group was spearheaded by former broadcaster Tamati Coffey who has made Rotorua his home, unsuccessfully running for Parliament there with Labour last year. Coffey himself topped the float, in drag, as the Birdwoman from the Rotorua legend. It was one of the few provincial entries from outside Auckland, and many locals came up to Auckland to take part. The group will continue post the Parade, running events to bring lgbti people together in Rotorua. They win a $500 cash prize for Best Float. Pride Parade Director Richard Taki says it was an extremely hard decision which took a few extra days to finalise. “Tamati Coffey's entry showed a true community spirit by bringing together glbtiq people of different ages from Rotorua. “They brought us the story of local legend Kurangaituku 'The Birdwoman', re-imagining her as a victim needing to be freed from her historical stigma. “The look and feel of the float was uplifting, especially when the wings expanded. Again I would like to thank every person who helped make the 2015 parade a ‘monsterlicious’ experience.” The top five entries were the Rotorua float, First Scene, Family Bar, Air New Zealand and Westpac. Taki says others worthy of mention were the NZAF AIDS Remembrance Float, NZ Police, Mika Haka Foundation, ANZ and the NZDF.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Thursday, 26th February 2015 - 10:20am