Out In The Square

Out In The Square

Out in the Square is the current incarnation of the annual Gay and Lesbian Fair that has been held each year in Wellington, New Zealand since 1986.

It was founded by local Wellington personality Des Smith[disambiguation needed ], and its purpose originally was to assist such organizations as the Wellington Gay Task-force to do fund-raising, and to raise visibility for the Law Reform cause.

The fair's original slogan was "A Fair for a Fair Law". (http://www.gaynz.net.nz/history/Part4.html) Since most of the objectives of the Gay Task-force were achieved with the passing of the decriminalization law in 1986 and with the enactment of the Human Rights Act in 1993 the purpose of holding the fair broadened out to assisting local community groups to raise funds for other local Gay & Lesbian causes such as, for example, the Lilac Library and the AIDS Foundation.

Since 2008 Out in the Square has been associated with a comparatively new LGBT pride festival called Proud, and is currently held in Wellington's Civic Square where it has extremely high visibility to all persons who walk through that area.

As an event it features performances from members of the rainbow community and wider, the Iko Iko Handbag Hurl, and community groups' stalls selling various kinds of merchandise, food, and wine, plants, etc. The Fair is described by its organizers as a 'festive' day out for the whole community and is part of the Wellington City Council's Summer City Festival.

History

The fair ran for 22 years as the Wellington Gay And Lesbian Fair in the grounds of Newtown School in the suburb of Newtown, before changing focus and moving into the central city in 2008. The current organizers, Out Wellington Inc, are proud of this legacy. In 2010, marking the Fair's 25th anniversary, the Mayor of Wellington City, Kerry Prendergast, awarded the Fair's founder, Des Smith, the very first Pink Wellington Award or 'Pinkie' for his role in starting this tradition.

Out in the Square is a significant event in the life of the Gay & Lesbian community in Wellington, and some consider it to be one of the largest outdoor gay community events in Aotearoa New Zealand and one of the best events on Wellington's social calendar. Although the figures are disputed the event organizers claim that every year more than 8,000 people attend Out in the Square.

Future In 2011, Out in the Square will be the first event in the programme of the 2nd Asia-Pacific Outgames - to be held in Wellington over 12–19 March 2011.

References

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужен реферат?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • The Square, Harlow — The Square is a music venue in Harlow, Essex. The Square is funded by Essex County Council and is managed by Essex Youth Service. As well as being a nationally recognized music venue, The Square also runs a series of performance and technical… …   Wikipedia

  • The Square, Tallaght — The Square is a shopping centre in Tallaght in south west Dublin. It is located at the junction of the Belgard Road dual carriageway (the R113) and the N81 and is beside the Luas Red Line terminus (see thumbnail). It was the first of four large… …   Wikipedia

  • Out of the Clouds — is a 1955 British drama film directed by Basil Dearden, and starring Anthony Steel, Sid James and James Robertson Justice. An Ealing Studios film, it follows the lives of the passengers and crew on a day at an airport that was filmed in Heathrow… …   Wikipedia

  • Out of the Darkness (Community and Overnight Walks) — The Out of the Darkness Community and Overnight walks benefit the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) by raising awareness on suicide and depression, raising money for research and education to prevent suicide from taking place, and …   Wikipedia

  • Out of the Blue (Oxford University) — This article is about OOTB (Out of the Blue). For OOTB (Out of the box), see Out of the box. Out of the Blue Background information Origin Oxford University Genres …   Wikipedia

  • The Square (film) — Infobox Chinese Film name = The Square image size = caption = director = Zhang Yuan Duan Jinchuan producer = Zhang Yuan writer = starring = music = cinematography = Zhang Yuan editing = distributor = released = 1994 runtime = 100 min. language =… …   Wikipedia

  • Battle of the Square — The Battle of the Square, in Norwegian Torvslaget , took place at the main square of Christiania at evening, May 17th, 1829. The reason for the skirmish was that the King of Norway and Sweden, Carl Johan, was anxious about the increasing… …   Wikipedia

  • Circle Takes The Square (EP) — Infobox Album Name = Circle Takes The Square Type = EP Artist = Circle Takes the Square Released = August, 2002 Genre = Experimental Hardcore Screamo Length = 29:02 Label = HyperRealist RecordsCircle Takes The Square is the self titled debut EP… …   Wikipedia

  • On the square — Square Square (skw[^a]r), n. [OF. esquarre, esquierre, F. [ e]querre a carpenter s square (cf. It. squadra), fr. (assumed) LL. exquadrare to make square; L. ex + quadrus a square, fr. quattuor four. See {Four}, and cf. {Quadrant}, {Squad},… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • On the square with — Square Square (skw[^a]r), n. [OF. esquarre, esquierre, F. [ e]querre a carpenter s square (cf. It. squadra), fr. (assumed) LL. exquadrare to make square; L. ex + quadrus a square, fr. quattuor four. See {Four}, and cf. {Quadrant}, {Squad},… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”