NEW ‘JOBURG PRIDE’ PLAYER EMERGES
In a surprise move, a former board member of the recently dissolved company behind Joburg Pride has announced her intention to put on a new LGBTI festival in the city.
In a media statement, Samantha Durkin described the planned Joburg Mardi Gras as “the new generation of pride” and said that it “will be a festival of cultural and social entertainment events, offering an unconditional platform for community expression”.
“Joburg Pride has grown from strength to strength over the last six years, and as a result of the previous company no longer hosting pride, four business people and entrepreneurs have come together with their specialised skills to take Joburg Pride to a new level and to create an entirely new event ﾖ the Joburg Mardi Gras,” said Durkin.
She added that the event would be drawing from pride celebrations across the globe and that “the aim is to bring a bigger, better and more vibrant celebration than ever before”.
Durkin explained that funds will be raised through sponsorship and the event itself, with a portion of the proceeds being given back to the community.
“Organisations or people working within the LGBTI community on a daily basis will be able to request funding from the event. We also aim to support smaller prides that take place in different regions of Gauteng and South Africa,” she said.
“Following in the successful footsteps of its predecessor, the Joburg Mardi Gras will remain, at its core, a call for LGBTI equality and recognition of our nation’s rich and brave diversity.”
The statement did not include details such as the date, venue or the names of the other partners in the venture; although Durkin confirmed to Mambaonline that she was the only previous pride board member that is involved.
“With the changes to the last pride event, we have decided to start fresh, to rename, to change venue and date. There is no rule that there can only be one LGBTI event, and we aim to take what the previous board built up, improve where we can and also learn from mistakes,” she commented.
In response to the dissolution of the Joburg Pride company earlier this month, two camps have emerged in the city’s LGBT community on the future of the annual event. The first is considering holding pride on more or less a similar basis as previous events; based on an elected volunteer board or committee and using sponsorship to fund a popular mass public event.
The second camp, backed by feminist and socialist-driven group One in Nine and the Forum for the Empowerment of Women (FEW), hopes to re-invent Joburg Pride as a more racially and economically diverse and accessible event that takes place outside of middle-class, traditionally white areas and focuses on the political and social challenges facing the LGBT community.
Durkin said that she was aware of other groups or people who are in discussions to stage Joburg Pride in some form or other but insisted the Mardi Grad “will not be in competition to Joburg Pride”.
“It certainly may become the new Joburg Pride, but pride is like Christmas ﾖ there is no ownership on it. Ten people can organise 10 prides if they want. We are creating Joburg Mardi Gras ﾖ a different event that is focused on the LGBTI community but is open to everyone,” she said. “We will bring relevant messages ﾖ whether activist in nature or not ﾖ into our messaging, but it will not be focused on one group.”
“We would like organisations to support it,” said Durkin, “to use the platform in a positive way ﾖ to spread their own missions. At the end of the day we aim to make money to put on the events, as well as to provide support for NGOs that do not get as much funding as larger NGOs, smaller Pride events and community events.”
She said that more information, including a date and location, will be announced soon.
For more information, visit the Joburg Mardi Gras Facebook page.
Congrats to Sam. Someone with balls at last.
The last board did a fantastic job at putting on pride and I don’t think there is anyone out there that could have done a better job. ( WELL DONE)
BUT BUT BUT…..
But all I can say is you will have a lot of credibility if you come clean and give the true reasons why you closed down the sec 21 co.
Give the last few years of audited figures of income and where you gave to any community.
If you don’t then how can you now say after 7 years you will give to the community.
If you do the same type of event as the last few WELL RUN events then you will get 90% of people behind you.
Except the feminazis at FEW and 1 in 9 who have tried to co-opt the Pride event to further their own radical feminist / Marxist agendas. They can just fuck off. They have NOTHING to do with LGBT in this country and have therefore NO RIGHT to engage with Pride or this new event in any way.
Is one of the four business people Fulvio De TooMuchMoneyis? If so then fuck this new Mardi Farce!
FEW have nothing to do with LGBT in this country? Really? Learn your history before you come onto forums and speak rubbish. I was at the commemoration of Noxoolo’s death yesterday, remembering all the women who have died in that one community just for being lesbians. Where you there? If not, don’t dis FEW, they are just about the only one’s who care…
Fanbloodytastic! I was not looking forward to anything the other “Groups” were planning, this is right up the majority of the community’s alley! Yay we have Christmas back and something to look forward to. Sam Durkin is the only previous board member so I reckon in answer to your question.. no Fulvio on this one.
Hi – To confirm, I am the only previous board member who is part of the new event.
And Thank God for that
To Jackie – i agree with you. Once we have done our scoping, and have more plans to release regarding Mardi Gras etc, we will be in a better position to advise on how we will give funds back to the community. It might be based on ticket sales, on a percentage of sponsorship, on donations etc. The previous Joburg Pride is still sorting out end of years financial statements. I am not really involved in that side to be honest. I can tell you off the top of my head that we donated money to Soweto Pride to host their Pride a couple of years ago, we paid for buses and transportation for community members in Alex, Tembisa, Mamelodi, Vaal etc. We donated money to Fikile someone in Cape Town, who has an NGO to fight corrective rape. We will never please all of the people all the time – but we do hope to sustain an event that is well supported.
I dont know if Im angry, shocked or digusted. What the hell do you mean by “Fikile someone”? How down right disrespectful of you. Such an important issue in South Africa and you don;t even have the decency to know her name. And you were a board member? Actually Im disgusted. You should be ashamed.
I know, right! Fikile someone in Cape Town?? Tells you everything you needed to know about the previous board of Joburg Pride and exactly what kind of an event this one is likely to be. Disgusting.
Ummm, sorry – but i was driving when i wrote this message. And it wasn’t Fikile anyway – that was someone else. I meant Ndumie Funda, founder of the Luleki Sizwe Project. I don’t have anything to be ashamed off.
and watch out for Ndumie Funda and LSP, everything isn’t a great there as is seems, ask the guys from the SA Gay Flag about what happened to their funds that somehow vanished – and @Shameless, yes I agree that rape of lesbians in an important issue (as important as the rape of ANY woman or child!) but a few charlatan organisations have popped up that do nothing of any real value but they continue to benefit from this shocking and disgusting phenomenon. Separate the issue or cause from the person.
Thanks Samantha, you strong woman you. We are behind you all the way. Thank God for people like you, we can’t wait.
CRYSTAL
Congratulations on a good idea and all the best
Congratulatins and thank you at last someone with a brain and balls to do just what we needed a Mardi Gras. Please please keep these militant useless groups of angry birds away from the event
I would also like to confirm that i don’t have balls. 🙂
lol Just proceed and do a good job and the numbers will be there. Let 1 in 9 have their own pride – cheers Carrie et al
Finally ! A logo we can be proud of !
Yawn more white men in minimal clothing – how will we ever over come this stereo type! I’m a white male and I afraid I’m with 1 in 9. If every person that attends these opulent events couldn’t just be open with ALL their family, ALL their work colleagues and all there staff we would be beter off..just glad the name does not have pride in it and hopefully people never make the link.
Agreed, if we could just get people to come out and march in their every day work clothes – suits, overalls, etc then this would do some much more to teach society that we are their sons and daughters not some strange sex crazed party animals.
It’s time professional companies like banks, hospitals get behind these events – but that will never happen if they are associated with undesirable drug taking and sex regalia
Job well done on the Logo.
Big up guys, theres always a space for change really job well done awe……..
Great development but wait, the militant Feminist Lesbian Comrades will sabotage it yet again