The organising committee for Auckland's 2010 LGBT Festival has had its first meeting, but its contact person remains tight-lipped on who is involved in the early planning process. "Many important questions were brought up and plenty of great ideas were thrown about the table," says Kent Phillips. "I would like to thank everyone for their understanding that this will be a long process and progress will be made slowly," he explains, adding that the organising party will be meeting again very soon, but its members do not want to be named publically "until the Festival has a name and the group is structured properly." A public meeting back in March agreed to wind up Auckland's iconic Hero Festival, hold some kind of Hero remembrance and thank-you event, and plan a new Festival for the future. After some months of delay due to health issues and planned holiday, Hero Festival Trustee Richard Kittelty says Hero's legal documents are at last now with the lawyer who will dissolve the Trust. Planning Hero's swansong can start when the remaining funds in the Hero Trust's bank account - thought to be slightly less than $10,000 - is freed up, says the event's volunteer co-organiser Wayne Otter. Kent Phillips and Auckland's GLBT Festival 2010 crew can be contacted via email at: glbtfestival2010@xtra.co.nz
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News Staff
First published: Wednesday, 1st July 2009 - 1:56am