Paekākāriki Pride

Paekākāriki Pride is the volunteer group that runs the village's Pride festival every Labour Weekend in late October. It grew out of a 2016 fundraising dance for Georgina Beyer, New Zealand's first openly transgender MP, and became a festival the following year. Co-founders Val Little and Pat McIntosh have led it with a local committee. The centrepiece is what the organisers call the world's (unofficial) shortest Pride parade, a few minutes along The Parade by the beach. Around it there have been discos for kids and adults at St Peter's Village Hall, a meet-and-greet at Finn's, a Pride swim and a dog show at Campbell Park. The group has no office or drop-in space; it posts each year's programme on its Facebook page.