Sat 4 Jul 2015 In: Our Communities View at Wayback View at NDHA
In the final part of our chat with Auckland Pride Festival Executive Officer Linda Heavey and Board member Paul Patton just over a week ago, we look back at year’s Festival, including the No Pride in Prisons protest, then look ahead to next year. In part one, we looked at Pride’s governance In part two, we looked at resourcing and management In this final part we cover aspects of the the 2015 Festival and look ahead to 2016. THE PARADE PROTEST When it comes to engagement with groups in our community like No Pride in Prisons, who organised a protest which disrupted a parade and left a protester with a broken arm, Heavey says Pride is an “umbrella” organisation. “We’re an umbrella for our community to come together under for whatever reason and with whatever message they have. In terms with who we choose to engage with, and who we don’t, if you’re part of our community, you’re in our mandate. Absolutely” Heavey adds “we’re not the arbiters of what the message is. We’re just the event.” Neither Heavey nor Patton are aware of being approached by the group after the parade protest action to discuss the events and their message. Heavey thinks there may have been some interaction led by those who organised the parade. “But we were a little bit hamstrung with what we could do anyway, because in terms of how it was handled, in terms of the investigation, that got elevated and handled by the police.” Heavey understands an investigation was held and police are satisfied with the way the protest was handled. GayNZ.com is yet to hear back from Auckland police to confirm this. The pair says everyone is welcome to come along to upcoming community forums and have their say. In turn, Heavey says, the whole point of the Auckland Pride Festival “is for people to have their message and have their say. There is plenty of opportunity for that for whomever. In terms of the parade, that is purely a logistical safety thing, it’s not about we want to hear your message or we don’t, it’s a public space. We’re the permit holders, we have responsibilities. The whole response to things like that is already organised and agreed upon with other parties like Council and police in advance. We’ve got a duty to do. We do it. It’s not about censoring messages, believe me.” THE FESTIVAL When asked whether the broader Festival and Pride Party were sufficiently promoted this year, Heavey says they have a really limited marketing budget. “We struggle.” She reiterates that the ATEED funding covers only, or nearly, the logistical cost of running the Auckland Pride Parade. “It doesn’t cover promoting it. So then we have to find money to promote the Festival and the Parade, and our budget for that is really limited. We’re very creative. That’s why we lean quote heavily towards publicity.” She says social media is an area where they want to keep expanding their reach, as actual advertising is very expensive. They are also looking to alternatives to a printed festival programme, something which is both costly and time consuming to put together. “We are looking at a smarter way of getting our programme guide out here,” Heavey says. Patton says the distribution process is massive – he personally delivered thousands of programmes. On the parade viewing number, Heavey says the 2015 crowd was estimated slightly bigger than the year before, at somewhere just over 50,000. Patton says February is a busy month for events in Auckland. “We are competing like all those other events for market share essentially. I think now that people realise it’s happening each year, there is going to be that organic growth.” Heavey says ATEED are happy with the result, considering the amount of other significant events that were on. THE PROUD PARTY As for negative feedback about the Pride Party, Heavey says “well, we were looking for a party organiser in December.” That’s because Pride Festival director Julian Cook, who also organised the parties, left the organisation after irreconcilable differences with the board, which GayNZ.com covered at the time. “To even find a party organiser with the skills to do that at such shortage notice was difficult,” Heavey says. Polling people involved in the party as well as a number of those attending GayNZ.com received a litany of dissatisfaction including poor value for money, low numbers, characterless venue spaces, a strange post-gay theming and complaints about the lack-lustre sets of an imported DJ. Heavey says it is interesting GayNZ.com has received negative feedback about the party, saying that isn’t reflective of the feedback they have had. She says the Victoria Park markets are a brilliant venue thanks to their character, but has challenges in terms of being able to take drinks from one premise to another due to licencing laws. “Regardless, we will change the venue this year. If you do the same thing every year, people just expect it to be the same.” Patton says the next party will be much more creative. “Our community has huge aspirations and it’s got to be much more innovative if we’re to attract that amount of people.” There could also be an extra influx of people, as next year's Auckland Pride Festival will tie in with Auckland hosting the Asia Pacific OutGames.Was the $50 and $60 party ticket price reasonable? "Yeah," says Heavey, "there hasn't been much in the way of feedback, It'll be reviewed anyway as will all our pricing offerings. On the pros and cons of having the parade and party on the same night or different nights Heavey says this year they're going to be on the same night. "We're going to have an amazing parade followed by a brilliant party. That has been an overwhelming response in terms of feedback. "Auckland Pride, we've got to realise isn't just for people living in Auckland," adds Patton. " It's also got country-wide appeal really and we've got to acknowledge that." Heavey says she's been receiving emails "from people wanting to book their international holiday to come down so they want to know the dates and plan their holidays around it." It's been suggested to us by gay dance-party enthusiasts that about 600 Asked for an actual or approximate number Heavy says "I think ticket sales may have been over twice that." She agreed to get back to GayNZ.com with the actual number but as of this (Saturday) afternoon no number had been received. We wondered if the party has to be profitable because it is one of the big income earners to help pay for other things. Although we haven't seen the numbers yet, can we assume the numbers were a bit less than the previous year? "Not by much," Heavey responds. And yet people GayNZ.com has spoken to who were at the Proud party say it felt as though there were considerably fewer people there in basically the same space as last year's party. "I'll tell you what it is... people were used to walking in and seeing all those people in that courtyard area, which by the way is very, very small," explains Heavey. "So the difficulty in using that space is that you've got a big stage and you've got people in front of it and then you've essentially got three pathways of people just moving all the way around it and so the first visual impression is of the crowd... So the numbers were there, they just weren't in that space and I think people were interpreting that as that the space wasn't full but they were just in the other places, that was all." It's been suggested that if the party wasn't successful then the income wouldn't come in and that could have meant Pride had financial difficulties and that wouldn't augur well for next year. "Obviously we want it to be as big and successful as possible but we want that to be the case for the experience and the celebration that it is. We do not want to make a loss, which means we either have to break even and if we can make a profit then that's the goal. But in terms of these sorts of events a lot of the ticket sales for these sorts of events in Auckland happen at the last moment so you never know what you're going to get year by year. But we've kept the numbers steady for three years..." FINANCES Q: "So where were you financially ok this year?" Heavey: "We've come in on budge." Q: "Were you budgeted to achieve a break-even or a profit?" Heavey: "We always had a target and a conservative budget because we can't spend money if it's not there, that's not responsible. So what we do is we budget very, very conservatively, then we have a target to aim for to encourage people to get the best return they can." Q: "Did you break even, or better?" Heavey: "Across the board, yes" Q: "So people have all been paid and paid on time and all of that? Heavey: "Yeah, yeah. We're still tidying up some of our final bills and chasing a few payments even now but it's on target. But there is no surplus if that's what you're after." Asked if Pride's financial accounts will be be made public Heavey says "as an incorporated society I think they are loaded up at some stage into the incorporated societies [system]. So they'll be a matter of public record in due course. There's nothing to hide," she laughs. Has Pride reported to ATEED and are they happy? "Yes," she says, "and they are very happy." As to whether any changes have been suggested, Heavy says yes, "We had to demonstrate that we had a good risk management plan... they need to be confident that we can manage risk if they are going to hand over money to us... That's all possible manner of risk. This event's a risky business so they are confident in us and confident that we delivered on the agreement" THE FUTURE Moving on to the future, it's anticipated there will be a massive opportunity next year with the OutGames happening concurrently with Auckland Pride. "The more that is going on that involves people the more full and interesting our festival is. It's too soon to disclose yet but we are in discussion with some people who are proposing new and quite interesting events and with some of the people that will be returning so it's looking to be an interesting Festival 2016." The first Auckland Pride Festival three years ago was a trial, with better funding and lessons learned from then on so what are the main things that Pride has learned and is taking forward from into the next event, based on the perceived strengths and weaknesses? "I think the key areas are that in order to deliver on community expectations and in order to be viable year upon year we need to make key changes to our structure and to our business model," says Heavey. "If we can do that then I am confident that we'll be better-resourced year round and as a result of that our community engagement and consultation will be where it needs to be and when it needs to be. In terms of the events themselves, it's taking the learnings, what works and what doesn't and what the risks are at a logistical level, but it's also shaking them up each year, that each year there's something new, something that's dynamic, different, more entertaining. "We can't basically rest on our laurels. We have to have something which is fresh and exciting and has widespread appeal." And that was pretty much where the interview left off. There was no way we were going to realistically grill the Pride spokespeople on every little point raised with us since Auckland Pride Festival 2015 ended, no way it was reasonable to re-litigate every issue. But we felt we had broached a broadly representative range of subjects. It has been clear from the middle of last year that for all concerned the huge undertaking that is the Auckland Pride Festival is, and perhaps always be, a learning experience. But with a commitment to frank and open communication between the glbti communities and the organisers of our biggest event it is likely that Auckland Pride may avoid many of the pitfalls of recent times. By Jacqui Stanford and Jay Bennie - 4th July 2015
Credit: Jacqui Stanford and Jay Bennie
First published: Saturday, 4th July 2015 - 9:37pm