Pride and suspected prejudice

Winter Pride organisers didn't let the theft of dozens of rainbow flags spoil their party, as the huge LGBTTQ+ festival danced into action over the weekend.

Festival co-director Sam Coulthard says hundreds turned out for the free Pride in the Park event, on Marine Parade on Saturday, taking advantage of a fortunate weather window before the snow and rain hit.

"It was massive. It was amazing," Coulthard says. "Everyone has just pulled together and the weather held out beautifully. It's been a very refreshing and positive start after what happened with the flags."

Around 29 flags were removed from poles downtown ahead of the festival, which is one of the biggest Pride celebrations in the southern hemisphere. Coulthard and co-director Odette Rose suspected homophobia could be behind the incident, as whoever was responsible would have had to go to some effort to cut them all down.

Queenstown Police released a CCTV image on Friday of four people they want to question over the incident. It shows the people walking along the street, one is draped in a rainbow flag and another appears to have a flag in their pocket.

Inspector Paula Enoka, Otago Lakes Central Area Commander, says police are "unaware of the motivation behind this theft" and encourages anyone who recognises the people or has information to get in touch. As of Sunday evening, police said no arrests had been made.

The rainbow flag banners cost around $400 each and replacing them for next year will cost an estimated $12,000. A Givealittle campaign launched on Friday has already raised $4,548.

Coulthard says Winter Prides first weekend of events have gone well, and the numbers have been better than expected.

"They've come in late but they've come in. We had people standing at our opening party, which was a sit-down show, so it was over capacity."

He says, however, Pride will need to find some funding to run the popular Pride in the Park event next year. The festival has lost three major sponsors and did not receive any funding from Queenstown Lakes District Council, so has borne the full cost of the running the expensive free event, as a way to get the community involved.

Various other events have taken place over the weekend (a full schedule is on the festival website at winterpride.co.nz), although Sunday's on-mountain events at Cardrona Alpine Resort were cancelled due to the weather.

Winter Pride runs until 1 September.