Celebrating Our City Of Rainbows This Weekend

March 17, 2025

Wellington Pride Festival’s fortnight of colour and love concludes this weekend with a two-day extravaganza for all ages.

On Saturday Odlin’s Plaza will be full of rainbows and jubilation at Out in the City. On Sunday, the Pride Hīkoi will march to Parliament in solidarity with our trans* and gender minority whānau for rights to gender-affirming healthcare. Then on Sunday afternoon, we’ll relax at the Pride Picnic in the Botanic Gardens, featuring performances from Orchestra Wellington to bring the festival to a close.

Wellington Pride Festival is the longest-running annual Pride celebration in Aotearoa. The first Pride celebrations in Te Whanganui-ā-Tara were organised as part of campaigning for Homosexual Law Reform in 1986. Wellington Pride Festival traces back to Newtown Lesbian and Gay Fair, held at Newtown School and themed ‘a Fair for a fair law’.

Now, Wellington Pride Festival is an ever-growing annual Festival celebrating our rainbow whānau in Te Whanganui-ā-Tara. What started as a day and grew to a weekend is now two full weeks of rainbow events made by and for the LGBTQIA*/MVPFAFF+ community. Our largest event, Out in the City, is a fair which attracts thousands from across Aotearoa and beyond. It is a connection to our history, celebrating how far we have come, while acknowledging there is still much work to be done. And we have a great time while doing it.

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“With over 80 stalls including food trucks, and performances all day, there’s things for all tastes,” says Wellington Pride Festival board secretary Jeremy Baker. “There’s so many incredibly talented artists involved - both selling their art at stalls, and also performing on our stage.”

Performances are all designed to be family friendly, and range from singer-songwriters to indie pop bands to drag to a full choir. (See below for a full list of performers).

There’s no denying that queer artists are facing challenges on all fronts right now.

“All the performers at OITC have volunteered their time to the festival, as their way of giving back to the community, but we really want to make sure they get paid for their time,” says Steven Mawhinney, board treasurer. “To that end, we’ve set up a Givealittle campaign so those who are able can contribute koha - because you can’t pay the rent with exposure.”

Wellington Pride Festival is run entirely by volunteers. Our primary asset is an incredible community, and we can’t wait to celebrate, commiserate, draw strength and create queer joy with them all this weekend.

“Everyone who comes with love is welcome to join us, even if you’re not a member of the Rainbow community,” says Jeremy. “And as mana whenua have taught us, anyone who comes to bring hate and disrupt the peace instead will be received with waiata and sent on their way. We are gathering to celebrate the beauty of a rainbow korowai to cloak Wellington with love, kindness and connection to one another”.

Full performer list:

Lillian Woodbury
Bri Louise
Danica Bryant
Girl I wanna be
Dillon Jo
Eleftheria
Cordelias
Vicky Weeds
Caryl Loria Illana
Robin Yablind
Ursa Major
King Markiss
Maria Richman
Cailiah the Banshee
Do Everything Better
May Love
Glamaphones

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