Bumper line-up for Albany Pride Festival as community comes together to celebrate in solidarity

Albany Pride Festival 2024 will kick off two busy weeks on Thursday night as the popular annual event attracts crowds from the city and beyond to celebrate family, solidarity and liberation.

The annual festival has grown to become the biggest celebration of the LGBTIQA+ community in regional WA since its inception in 2011.

This year features a packed schedule with 34 events crammed into 12 days and nights.

Co-ordinator Millie Reid said the festival was getting bigger and better every year based on feedback from the local community and visitors who came to Albany specifically for the events.

We really realise that we are fighting for liberation — not only queer liberation, but liberation across the board. None of us are fully going to be liberated until all of us are liberated.

“When I first moved down here about 10 years ago, there wasn’t really much of a celebration,” she said.

“There was a monthly catch-up and a small sense of community that Annie (Arnold) had managed to create, but there was no celebratory events, nothing like what we have now.

“For me it’s really important that we created that down here, because if this is where I’m going have a family and live I want it to feel like there is a sense of community.”

Festivities will kick off with a welcome to country by Menang elder Vernice Gillies on Thursday from 6pm within the Albany Heritage Park.

Ms Reid said it was exciting and important to be able to include a welcome to country to start the festival for the first time.

She said introducing the welcome to the line-up reflected this year’s festival theme We Are Family.

“It’s part of our role being an organisation down here that is public-facing so we want to reaffirm our commitment of solidarity with the local Aboriginal and First Nations people,” she said.

“We really realise that we are fighting for liberation — not only queer liberation but liberation across the board.

“None of us are fully going to be liberated until all of us are liberated.”

Picnics, art exhibitions, brunches, sporting events, classes, movies, performances and plenty of drag feature in the line-up, with a litany of options to choose from on each day of the festival.

Ms Reid said she was looking forward to The Priestess of Morphine because it “was something different to anything we’ve ever done before” as well as the Spank Dance Party at the town hall on March 2.

The ever-popular fair day and dog show will take over the town square on March 2 from 10am.

“The fair day gets bigger every year as well,” Ms Reid said.

“It’s another one we are continuing to expand on, we’ve got around 30 stallholders this year, three different food trucks, loads of different entertainment, lots of stuff for the kids and the dog show of course.”

For the full line-up of events from Thursday through to March 4, visit the Albany Pride Festival 2024 website.