Cairns Pride Festival Kicks Off This Weekend

The Cairns community is set to celebrate their pride festivities this weekend as the Cairns Pride Festival commences a week long celebration from October 4 – 12.

Including the Cairns Pride Fair Day members of the local LGBTQIA+ community will be coming together for a range of diverse and engaging activities.

So get ready for another fantastic pride celebration up north!

The Cairns Pride community comes together

Cairns is set to come alive again this week for the incredibly exciting Cairns Pride Festival from October 4 – 13.

This years events are set to kick off this the weekend from October 4, thanks to the work of a lot of community members who have been passionately getting behind the organisation of the 2024 festival.

For the 2024 event community members, with the help of Queensland Council for LGBTI Health (QC) have been worked on invigorating this years event.

Speaking to the Star Observer Cairns local Adrian Poole revealed the massive community support that went into this years preparations.

“Over the recent times Cairns Tropical Pride has been slowly building itself back up in Cairns community” he revealed.

“A community call out was posted and on the first meeting over 20 diverse members of the community came to the QC office knowing nothing but that they wanted to come together and put their thoughts into something they believe is important.”

“It was chaos” he laughed.

“But from that chaos came a great plan of how we were going to put on a fair day and other activities around it.”

Since that first meeting the group met regularly to passionately plan and prepare for the upcoming festival sharing a wealth of different thoughts and experiences.

“The group of people that have regularly met are all various ages and life experiences” Adrian describes.

They are “‘all colourful personalities who all share the same love and desire of having a safe and celebratory experience for the LGBTIQ+ community.”

“The community here is no different than any other place. We have representation for many different people and we want to hear those voices so it’s been amazing to be part of this years event planning.”

Cairns Pride 2024 events

The Cairns Pride Festival kicks off this weekend on Friday evening with a Pride Art Exhibition at 6pm at the Tank Arts Centre in Edge Hill at 6pm.

However the weekend kicks off with a burst of colour as the Pride Stride descends on Fogarty Park and marches on the Cairns Esplanade at 9am on Saturday morning.

The rest of the day offers a variety of options for festival goers from a queer coffee catch up, to Busty Bingo or the Official Pride Launch party at Club Reservoir, there is something for everyone.

On Sunday the official Pride Fair Day kicks off at the Tanks Arts Centre in Edge Hill for a relaxing day of family friendly fun and entertainment in the sun.

The rest of the week includes nights of entertainment, including a trivia night, a seniors morning tea, Femme Friday, a gay games day and ends with the Tropical Pride Party.

This amazing week is produced by The Cairns Pride Festival vital assistance and support from The Queensland Council for LGBTI Health, Two Spirits and Cairns Regional Council.

For more information head to cairnspridefestival.com.au