This year’s festival, centred on the theme ELEVATE, starts on Wednesday, February 1 and runs through until Sunday, February 26 2023.

The festival’s theme and its supporting campaign, which features powerful imagery of creatives from across the rainbow community, has been developed with creative agency Curative. A fierce media schedule helping the festival elevate visibility across the city has also been delivered by the team at Together.

This theme feels right for our community right now says the Festivals Executive Director, Max Tweedie.

“Drawn from a desire to rise above the challenges our communities face, take our Festival to the next level, and lift up the voices of our community – ‘elevate’ perfectly encapsulates our aspirations for the 2023 Auckland Pride Festival.”

“We’re thrilled to have worked with partners who really understand our community. The teams at Curative and Together deeply appreciate all of the beauty and complexity that our community experiences and expresses, and the need for our festival to be a real beacon for us all to keep fighting, to keep celebrating, to keep creating, and to keep making sure our voices are heard and that our community is seen.”

Visually, the theme of elevation has been brought to life through a colourful treatment that references iconography and the divine, reinterpreting religious and cultural motifs to elevate queer sacredness.

Creative Director Logan Bradley says: “Our partnership with the Auckland Pride Festival is one that we take really personally. As a team, many of us are part of the rainbow community, and have seen the event really support us in our own identities. Our goal with the campaign was to help elevate the way that our community is seen, to build on that sense of collective pride, and show the strength and beauty of rainbow whānau.”

Media, data and technology agency Together has also supported the mission of elevating Auckland Pride, securing opportunities to promote the festival and amplify the stories of

Tāmaki Makaurau’s Takatāpui and Rainbow communities in OOH, print, digital and social media environments.

Bridget Bucknell-Whalley, Head of Strategy & Planning at Together says that they have been delighted to work with a number of media partners to support the cause.

“Many of our partners have been so supportive of the campaign, and keen to find ways to add as much voice and value to the festival. To stay true to the vision of the festival we focused on engaging the different communities and identities that Pride represents but also maintaining momentum with some bigger set pieces over the month.

“And, the creative is so stunning – we’re really pleased to be seeing it all across Auckland in support of the many identities, experiences and celebrations that the Auckland Pride Festival brings to the city. We hope that the increased visibility helps build greater participation in the festival, and true pride in the community.”