It’s that time of the year when we celebrate the LGBTI community and come together to remember our achievements, look to highlight the issues we still need to address, and try to cram as much into our social calendar as possible. It’s Pride season, and tonight marks the opening of Christchurch Pride. The festival opens tonight with an art exhibition, featuring over 50 art works from both local and national LGBTI artists and allies for one night only. “Come along and see some amazing talent, performances and find out what else is on offer during the week,” says Christchurch Pride Chairperson, Jill Stevens. “We are looking forward to bringing you a fantastic opening event this year.” “Pride is also thrilled to announce that Canterbury writer Joe Bennett will be doing a reading from his critically acclaimed new book King Rich at the opening.” Christchurch Pride is run by a non-profit volunteer group made up of seven individuals who give their own time to help Christchurch come together for the festival, which has been around since the early 2000s. Planning a festival is no easy task, in fact, organisers of Christchurch Pride waste no time and the planning for each year begins as soon as the previous festival has wrapped up. After the 2011 earthquakes that devastated the Christchurch and changed the city forever, the Pride Festival took a break and in 2013 Jill says a small group of pro-active residents “saw a real need to try and reunite our fractured community after many of our venues and groups had been lost.” “A large amount of the funding comes from the supporters that attend the events with each year getting bigger but we are also happy to have support from Pink Health Christchurch, NZAF and LYC as well as support for the art show from Rule Foundation,” says Jill. “Over the past few years, Christchurch Pride has slowly been rebuilding community spirit in conjunction with many community organisations, and with the invaluable support of volunteers, venues and local businesses.Christchurch pride is about bringing all to the small community groups together under one umbrella and celebrating.” To check out the full list of events during Christchurch Pride, check our their website. - 18th March 2016