Flying rainbow flags and banners across the Peninsula will see the Northern Beaches celebrate its LGBTQIA+ community over two weeks of love, tolerance, respect and inclusion.
One of the most iconic festivals for the LGBTQIA+ community is heading to Sydney and the Northern Beaches is ready to embrace it.
For three whole weeks in February and March, the Beaches will be part of the 2023 WorldPride Festival – an event which will be hosted by a southern hemisphere city for the very first time in history.
To get this main event up and running, the Northern Beaches Council has awarded $20,000 in grants to local organisations to support their activities celebrating diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Northern Beaches Mayor Michael Regan says he is proud that Council is supporting the international event.
“We want the Northern Beaches to be a place where all people in the LGBTQIA+ community feel respected and supported, and where diversity is celebrated.
“Northern Beaches Council has chosen to run a program of activities that acknowledge and support Sydney WorldPride because we believe that creating a sense of safety for LBTQIA+ communities is intrinsic to our Social Sustainability Strategy – Better Together 2040 and the Community Safety Plan,” he added.
As such, grants have been awarded to organisations supporting activities that encourage and promote the community to celebrate Pride across the Beaches.
What is WorldPride?
WorldPride is a global LGBTQIA+ festival that has been staged since 2000. InterPride, the organisation that chooses the right to host the event, has chosen Sydney to be the host of WorldPride in 2023 – a first for a city in the southern hemisphere.
This event will also incorporate all the annual Mardi Gras events, plus a broader festival across arts, sport, theatre, concerts, parties, First Nations programming and a human rights conference. Every activity has been designed to create a strong community that is diverse and inclusive.
Diversity matters
Greens councillor Kristyn Glanville was one of the councillors that supported the participation of the Northern Beaches in this event. To her, bringing the celebrations to the Beaches will increase the motivation to visit the area and create a safe space for everyone to express themselves.
“WorldPride is a wonderful opportunity to bring travellers from interstate and overseas to our beautiful Beaches and make them feel welcome and safe. Likewise, it is fantastic that we can locally offer diverse activities for local LGBTQIA+ people who want to celebrate WorldPride close to home,” says Ms Glanville.
Ms Glanville says about 70,000 odd travellers are expected to be coming to Sydney from interstate and from overseas.
“I think part of why we want to put on these pride activations is actually to make those travellers feel welcome, make them feel like they want to come back to the Beaches and feel that this is a safe place for them to travel to in the future,” she explained.
Ready to Pride
Fusion Pride is one of the Northern Beaches’ grant recipients. The new community group has been established to provide a strong presence for the local queer and gender diverse community and promote values of inclusion, visibility, kindness, and respect.
Sean Moran, one of the co-founders of the organisation, says the event is a great opportunity to celebrate diversity but also to create an attractive and fun space for the community to learn more about LGBTQIA+ groups.
“It will be a really great way to show a bit of visibility, openness and celebration. To show that being LGBTQIA+ is not something to be scared of, and to feel like you have a place where you belong.
“This is our home as well, and it will be a great opportunity for everyone that is interested in learning more about who we are and what people in the community [have been] through,” he says.
Northern Beaches Council liaison Deborah Richardson Bull meets with the founding members of Fusion Pride.
Sean says he has experienced firsthand the change in how the community, on the Peninsula and more broadly, approaches diversity in general. In his personal experience, those changes have had a positive impact on his sense of belonging.
“Growing up queer on the Northern Beaches, it has been wonderful to witness a powerful shift in support for local diversity and cultural identity within the community.
“It is also true that while positive steps have been taken, there remain very little opportunities for visibility and inclusion for our local LGBTQIA+ community.”
The group, co-founded by members of the local queer community, was created through consulting with the community and securing support from the Northern Beaches Council and local businesses.
“This is an important initiative, which is paramount for us as we offer an inclusive and welcoming space – for anyone. We want to make sure people who live in the Northern Beaches feel like they have a place where they can go and meet new people,” Sean says.
SHOW YOUR SUPPORT!
Join in the WorldPride celebrations at one of the following local events:
- 17 February – 5 March Youth activities from Girls on Fire at Dee Why Beach
- 18 February Plus Rainbow Families/ Fusion Pride Family Picnic at Dee Why Beach
- 19 February Love is Love Community Social and PrideSwim at Dunbar Park, Avalon
- 25 February Drag Queen story time at Manly Library
- 4 March Collaroy Tennis Club’s Pride Day
There will also be rainbow art on Manly Corso from 17 February – 5 March, an exhibition of First Nations artist Daniel Golding at the Manly Art Gallery & Museum and a drag comedy night, rainbow cocktails and ‘queer talk’ sessions at the Harbord Beach Hotel.
“We will have different programs during the year, so it’ll be a longer-term thing. And for the event, we want people to leave feeling like they have found somewhere that they can connect with other people in a way they haven’t been able to do in this area before,” he says, proudly.
During WorldPride, Fusion Pride will be participating in a range of different activities, starting with a Pride Picnic on 18 February at Dee Why Beach.
For more information on all the events taking place on the Beaches for 2023 WorldPride, visit the Northern Beaches Council website.