Bear Pride details revealed
The Harbour City Bears (HCB) have gained a reputation for putting on some of the best parties in Sydney. Their annual winter festival Bear Pride is known as a departure from the usual bear fare in that it focuses more on food, arts and culture.
This year’s festival, to be held August 1 – 5, is no different. Highlights include a nighttime food market, an alternative cabaret evening, a first-run film festival and a brand new dance party alongside regular favourites Furry Friday at the Oxford Hotel and Bears On Sunday at the Lord Roberts Hotel.
“We’ve decided to extend the festival this year, from four to five days, with eight fantastic events,” HCB president John Carayannis told the Star Observer.
“We’re also excited that we’ll be bringing two Australian premiere movies for the bears with our friends from Queer Screen.”
The festival opens with a Bear Pride dinner at Smash Sausage Kitchen in Newtown on Wednesday night, while bear cabaret artist Eric Kuhlmann will perform his outrageous show Red Light Songs of Lust, Love and Death at the Oxford Hotel the following night.
Friday night’s Bear In A China Shop event will centre on a stroll around the Chinatown Night Market before moving on to Furry Friday at the Oxford.
Kings Cross institution Govinda’s will host two film premieres on Saturday and Sunday afternoons — BearCity 2 (pictured) and I Want Your Love — sponsored by Queer Screen.
HCB will host a new dance party called Bear Pit downstairs at the Imperial Hotel on Saturday night, while on Sunday night, festivalgoers can farewell friends with a spit roast BBQ at the Lord Roberts Hotel.
“There’s something for everyone in this year’s calendar and we can’t wait until the festival begins,” Carayannis said.
“We definitely recommend people get their tickets as early as possible, as a lot of these events will sell out very quickly.”
Tickets for most events on the Bear Pride calendar are on sale now through www.Daisytickets.com
Bear Essentials is always great, so you can look forward to being excited about that for sure.
Bear Pride is a new kid on the block, in a difficult time of year when everyone would rather snuggle up. But it grew out of the anniversary of the club’s founding, which was otherwise just a dinner. Good on them for trying to expand it into something a little bigger than just the dinner. Though the way it was described in the Star DID make it sound a little bland. The website goes into more detail, and I think it will be worth attending.
Those events are a bit terrible, nothing really exciting. It’s a shame to see Harbour City Bears fall so far. Hopefully bear essentials will be better.