The first full Queenstown Winter Pride event since 2019 is shaping up to be a record-breaker.
Co-director Martin King says while it feels ‘‘really strange’’ to finally have control over the event, canned at the 11th hour last year due to Covid, he’s relieved to be in that position.
The festival, which officially started yesterday and runs till September 4, will include 45 scheduled events, with several others around it.
The combination of more ticketed events, and increased capacity on existing ticketed events, means the festival’s ticket sales are at record numbers.
King says thousands of tickets have been sold, the Aussies are back in force, and a handful of people are inbound from Europe and North America.
Crowd-favourite events Propaganda Snowball and Queenstown’s Got Talent are sold out, while King’s looking forward to on-mountain events at Coronet Peak, The Remarkables and Cardrona, which aren’t ticketed, but require a lift pass if people want to ski.
A new mountain event this year is the Pride Colour Run, being held at The Remarks next Friday, ‘‘which is going to be a spectacle of rainbows and Pride and colour,’’ he says.
Also new this year is this coming Tuesday’s Queenstown Business Chamber of Commerce ‘Out to Lunch — Pride in Business’, which King says is a marker of how engaged businesses and organisations in the region are with Pride.
‘‘It blows my mind … that there’s that many businesses who are coming along during Winter Pride to learn about making their businesses inclusive.’’
King says free, community events include next Saturday’s Remarkables Pride Market and Pride Park Run.
