•The Order of Perpetual Indulgence doesn’t want to swelter through another daytime parade. Photo by Jeremy Dixon.

PRIDE’S parade is heading back to the night.

Following a dire turnout at last year’s inaugural daytime parade the Northbridge event will be pushed back to 8pm.
The Pride management committee had hoped a daytime parade would encourage more families, but Voice staffer Jenny D’Anger marched last year and said audiences were a fifth of their usual size. Adding salt to the wound, it was so sweltering a Wasamba member became dehydrated and keeled over at the end.

Long-time Pride marchers the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence lobbied hard for a return to the night. While Pride’s surveys of 700 people reported a 50/50 split between day and night supporters, the Sisters’ own data showed 90 per cent support for a night event.

Mother Gretta Amyletta of the order said the evening event could still cater for the “balloons and prams” crowd.
“The Channel 7 Christmas pageant is at night, the straight families can bring their kids to a night parade. Why can’t gay and lesbian families bring their kids to a night time parade?”

The evening Celebration event that ran in 2013 (the hair-down party for those missing the raunchier night parades) will also be cancelled in 2014, with Pride’s co-president Daniel Smith saying it took a lot of time and money which could be better spend on fairday, the parade and the overall festival.

by DAVID BELL