Pride ‘Beyond Paradise’

Auckland’s favourite summer festival – Auckland Pride – opened last week, and creative agency Curative and the team at Together have once again joined forces to launch the festival’s new campaign into the world.

The theme for this year’s festival is KI TUA: BEYOND PARADISE. Curative worked with Auckland Pride to build on their theme and create its supporting campaign, which explores the idea of queer futurism. A fierce media schedule helping the festival elevate visibility across the city has also been delivered by the team at Together. 

The festival’s Co-Executive Directors Julia Croft and Hāmiora Bailey were clear that they wanted this year’s festival to go beyond, with a focus on the talented artists involved and authentically bringing indigenous voices and experiences into the light. 

“The experiences of our community are broad and intersectional. There’s grit and challenge and there is also so much fun, play and light. Curative found a way to capture that with a ‘Mad Max’ futuristic edge that brings so much strength and really spotlights some of our incredible artists and performers in the festival this year. And Together’s media planning has helped to make sure that that beauty is seen and celebrated across the city”, says Croft.  

For the 2024 campaign, the Curative creative team began with the question, “for our Takatāpui and Rainbow communities, what is beyond paradise?” which led them to a raw, supernatural and light-filled aesthetic that has a sense of power and mystery. This year, the team have loved the process of platforming creative luminaries from within the community in the campaign.

Creative Director Logan Bradley says “What I love about our partnership with Auckland Pride is that it’s a community many of us at Curative are part of and the longevity of the relationship offers so many opportunities for play and curiosity. Now we’ve worked with the team at Pride for four years, and we can create thematic conversations between one year and the next. The 2024 campaign builds on a conversation of elevation that we started in 2023 – exploring a sense of ‘paradise’ –  by imagining new queer futures.”

Media, data and technology agency Together has also supported the mission of going ‘Beyond Paradise’ with Auckland Pride, securing opportunities to promote the festival and amplify the stories of Tāmaki Makaurau Takatāpui and Rainbow communities in OOH, print, cinema, digital and social media environments. 

Bridget Bucknell-Whalley, Head of Strategy & Planning at Together says that they have been delighted to work with a number of media partners to support the cause. “After kicking off our relationship with Auckland Pride last year, the team at Together are excited to bring the amazing work to life for this year’s festival with our media partners – a huge thank you to them for their involvement and support this year.”

Auckland Pride Festival 2024 runs from 01 – 29 February 

For more information about the festival programme visit https://aucklandpride.org.nz/

Auckland Pride
Julia Croft and Hāmiora Bailey, Co-Executive Directors
Nathan Joe, Creative Director

Curative
Eddy Royal, Managing Director
Logan Bradley, Creative Director
Kaan Hiini, Design Director
Jono Cole, Photographer
Bede Bennett, Designer
Georgia Hoskins-Smith, Producer
Via Tuimaseve – Project Coordinator 

Together
Bridget Bucknell-Whalley, Head of Strategy & Planning
Jaimie Crawford, Client Director
Dishan Chougle, Programmable Director