Pride toughs it out

After a $15,000 loss on its New Year’s Eve party and a $130,000 loss in the last financial year, Pride faces an uncertain future.

Pride treasurer Jude Tarran said the organisation would need to seek other fundraising sources in order to survive.

Realistically I think the organisation has definitely 12 months, so long as no one does anything ridiculously stupid, Tarran said.

The loss for the NYE party followed an operating loss of $130,486 for the financial year ending 30 June 2004, the fourth year in a row the organisation reported a substantial loss.

Tarran told the Star losses last year meant the organisation had approximately $75,000 in the bank in addition to a $60,000 futures fund. This is not enough to fund a party the size of this year’s, which cost $200,000.

Pride will definitely do other fundraising activities, Tarran said.

Will it be a New Year’s Eve party? Good question. Will it be on New Year’s Eve? Don’t know yet.

Tarran was upbeat about the $15,000 loss at this year’s party, stating they needed 2,100 partygoers to break even, and sold close to 2,000 tickets.

A Pride media release said the Pride Board considered the $15,000 loss money well spent and a real boost to the organisation.

When asked what these statements meant, Tarran said New Year’s Eve parties were a tradition for Pride, and organisers had received very positive feedback from attendees.

But it certainly is never Pride’s intention to lose money. That is not our intention, Tarran said.

Tarran said the retrenchment of Pride’s general manager last year and the move from Surry Hills to Erskineville Town Hall in 2003 meant the organisation was definitely sustainable. Losses in the previous years were about the same amount as the Surry Hills rent, she said.

Now we don’t need to raise that type of money to keep the organisation going -¦ Now we can focus on the things our constitution set us up to do, she said.

Tarran said the Pride board was considering alternative methods of raising revenue, including seeking government funding.

The deciding factor for us is how we decide to shape Pride Week this year, Tarran said.

What we have found since moving in to Erskineville Town Hall is we have great success doing smaller events and they turn out to be profitable.

Tarran said Pride would probably not merge with New Mardi Gras, in spite of a call by outgoing NMG president Michael Woodhouse in July 2004 for the two groups to merge or die.

Will that actually happen? I doubt it. Will we work closely with MG? Yes. But we’re also starting to work more closely with Leather Pride too, Tarran said.

Pride will definitely continue on.

After a peak of 10,000 tickets sold in 1999/2000, Pride’s New Year’s Eve party numbers have dropped significantly each year until 2002/2003, when only 3,680 of a predicted 6,500 tickets were sold.

Although numbers at this year’s party were a small increase on the 2003/2004 party, Pride had planned for a larger crowd by hiring the Dome.