In 1985, a group of passionate Darwinites came together to create the very first Darwin Pride Festival – promoting diversity, equality and celebrating LGBTIQ+ communities. These brave individuals shined the spotlight on issues that needed to change and celebrated what already made us shine. Over three decades on, we’re continuing what they began.
Top End Pride is run by a group of volunteers who are passionate about equality, and diversity. We meet on a monthly basis to talk about items raised to our attention, plan and coordinate events and work closely with local Government bodies to ensure we have our voices heard for future generations.
It is our mission to continue to raise awareness within our community and campaign for freedoms that will allow our people to live their lives on a genuinely equal footing.
In November 2020, members of Darwin Pride elected to change the name to Top End Pride. As a not for profit organisation dedicated to supporting our the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex (GLBTQI+) community here in the Top End of the Northern Territory, our name change is reflective of the work we have done in all regions such as Darwin, Katherine and Jabiru and everywhere in between.
Darwin Pride (NT) inc rebrand to Top End Pride (NT) inc
This was a huge step for us as an organisation and a number of different things had to change including creating a new logo to represent our name change. Great work and thought has been put in to our logo which has been designed to stand out on the National and International stages. Our committee has spent months discussing ideas and it was important we have a story to share.
The first notable piece of the art work is the outline of the Northern Territory as it identifies us being from this great land.
The colours of Pride are diverse and we decided to include such colours which also represent our spectacular sunsets seen here in the Northern Territory.
As the Brolga can often be seen in the stunning parks of Northern Territory, we decided to have this great crane as a feature of our logo.
The 2021 Top End Pride committee have a vision, that is to hold the largest festival in Northern Australia during 2023 to celebrate our community and also World Pride Sydney. To do this, we must take steps now to help us increase our capacities.
Darwin Pride Festival changes include:
🏳️⚧️Our previously known cabaret capacity increase from 120 to 275 guests with a fabulous location suitable for us to increase guest numbers to 1000 over a three year period.
🏳️🌈A mommoth ‘festival’ style stage inclusive of a shade structure to help keep our entertainers out of the sun also featuring a huge LCD monitor so everyone can see what is happening.
🏳️⚧️Another change you may notice will be the introduction of an annually hosted Gala with our inaugural ball to be held on Saturday 23 October 2021. This event will replace the Dine with Pride evening previously held during our Darwin Festival.
🏳️🌈Providing more free spaces for our youth community including a Free for All Dance Party on Saturday evening at Pride Wonderland and a Youth Private Beach Party on the Sunday.
The committee have been hard at work sourcing new event spaces so in 2023 we can welcome people from all over the world to our fabulous little city known as Darwin.
