The Big Apple gets fruity
New York City's Pride Week is the closest relative to Sydney's own Mardi Gras. Andrew Georgiou finds himself among hundreds of visiting Sydneysiders in NYC and chats with Pride's media director, Dennis Spafford
When was the first pride parade held? The NYC Pride March was first held in June of 1970 to commemorate the Stonewall Riots of June 1969.
What sort of numbers does NYC Pride pull in? The Pride events have grown is size and scale over the years, and now we welcome over a million visitors to the events.
What are Heritage Of Pride's main objectivesin organising the event? To create spaces for our community to celebrate themselves and commemorate our collective struggle for equality, as well providing visibility of our community to the world at large.
What is the biggest event (outside of the parade itself) during the week? That would have to be the Dance on the Pier. Every year we welcome 6,500 guests to the event which is not only a dance fundraiser, but a protest set to music, when we remember a time when it was illegal for members of the same sex to dance together.
Who have been the biggest headliners to appear at the Party on the Pier? We have been honored to welcome such amazing stars such as Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson, Jennifer Lopez and Idina Menzel.
How would you describe NYC's queer community? So many of us come to New York looking for personal liberation and freedom of expression, that when viewed as a whole, the queer community in New York is a fantastic tapestry of queer people from all over the world.