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Find a 2021 Event

Find a 2021 Event

Media Release

19 November 2020

Auckland Pride announces the theme for the 2021 Auckland Pride Festival: Karanga Atu, Karanga Mai.

Last night Auckland Pride called the Rainbow communities of Aotearoa together to celebrate the Launch of the 2021 Auckland Pride Festival and begin in earnest the countdown to February and their first official month long festival.

2021 Auckland Pride Launch. Image: Becki Moss

As part of the launch celebrations at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki last night Auckland Pride proudly announced the theme for the 2021 Festival – Karanga Atu, Karanga Mai. 

Auckland Pride Board co-chair Kaan Hiini says “These words have been carefully chosen for the power behind these kupu. They carry weight, they carry emotion, they carry importance. Through karanga we open spaces, we connect, we make our intentions clear. Through karanga we pay tribute to our dead. Through karanga we can move forward.”

Karanga Atu, Karanga Mai creates space for a malleable call for action, community, protest, celebration, whānau, understanding, and much much more. It creates space for calls for help, calls celebrating the heroes who have achieved so much, calls of delight as we watch our community shine on a stage or strut down a catwalk and calls of wonder as someone quietly blows your minds with a profound insight at a panel discussion.

Auckland Pride invites the rainbow communities of Tāmaki Makaurau to join their voices together and send them to the heavens, to our leaders and to our communities – a collective call for continued change, continued progress and in celebration of the progress already achieved.

Share your calls over the next few months. Prepare them for the festival, for the march for the party. Add your personal calls to action to create a unique and authentic movement as part of the overarching programme for 2021. Registrations are still open, but must close December 20. 

Auckland Pride are proud to be producing their own series of calls, with the key events returning to the expansive programme for 2021.

Tuwheratanga – A Call of Opening

The Auckland Pride Festival 2021 opens with the dawn blessing, acknowledging mana whenua and our takatāpui whānau. As the very first event of a month-long programme, Tuwheratanga offers a chance to open the space for the Festival, to take stock and reflect back on our shared history, those who have carved a path for our community, and to pay tribute to the pioneers of the queer liberation movement in Aotearoa.

Pride Gala – A Call For Expression

Under the creative guidance of director Freya Finch, the Pride Gala returns for another year of queer splendour; returning to Q’s Rangatira to bring you an incredible lineup of Tāmaki’s queer talent – headlined by both House of COVEN and IMAN. Selling out in 2020, the Gala brings our community together for a joyous night of queer excellence, celebrating expression in all forms from the expansive talent on offer in our city and providing a taste of what’s to come in the festival.

Pride March – A Call For Change

Auckland Pride are calling our communities together to march through Auckland Central in an energetic display of unity and community. Embodying a collective call for change, the March will once again showcase the rich diversity of our queer communities – amplifying the calls from the grassroots, and celebrating the uniqueness of who we are.

Pride Party – A Call For Celebration

As the March up Queen St finishes in Aotea Square, Auckland Pride invites you to stay on for a party like no other! An evening of celebratory splendour, some of Aotearoa’s finest queer acts will span two stages, featuring an unbelievable lineup of DJs, Drag performances and musicians – headlined by queer icons HalfQueen and Randa. With food trucks a-plenty and the Box Bar, this free, all-ages, and accessible event will offer everything you need to celebrate the final weekend of Auckland Pride. The Pride Party is produced with support from Auckland Live, Spark NZ, and Skyn.

“We can’t wait for the expansive programme of events that our community are busy creating in the lead up to the Festival.” says Director of Pride Max Tweedie. “A whole month provides us with a unique opportunity to be a larger platform, to support our communities, showcase our excellence, and amplify a louder collective call for change.”

Auckland Pride Festival Registrations are open until December 20.
Pride & Spark Empowerment Initiative applications close November 29.


The Auckland Pride Festival 2021 runs from Wednesday 3 – Sunday 28 February, 2021. 

Website:  https://2021.aucklandpride.org.nz
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/AucklandPride/
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/AucklandPride
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aucklandpride/

#AKLPride #AucklandPride

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