Covid-19: Big Gay Out 2022 organisers cancel event citing fears over Omicron

Wednesday, 19 January 2022

Then-Prime Minister Bill English at the Big Gay Out held at Coyle Park, Point Chevalier, Auckland. (First published in February 2017)

The New Zealand Aids Foundation (NZAF) has cancelled the Ending HIV Big Gay Out, scheduled to take place on February 13, 2022, in Auckland.

Organisers noted the significant public health risk associated with proceeding, saying they cancelled the event due to the threat of a community Omicron outbreak.

NZAF chief executive Dr Jason Myers said it was a pre-emptive and cautious decision, made with the safety of the communities the organisation serves at its core.

Pride is due to be held in February. (File photo)

Meanwhile, Auckland Pride Festival organisers said they have not made any decisions about the status of the 2022 festival, but it will also not proceed if there’s a community outbreak of Omicron.

* At home with sex-positive queer Christian feminist producer and poet Kate Spencer

* Covid-19: MIQ room release cancelled due to Omicron situation

Myers told Stuff: “It was very, very hard to cancel the event. We love putting this event on and we know how much community loved coming along and enjoying the day but at our core we are a public health organisation and the job we're here to do is protect and preserve public health.

“It just became untenable to continue planning, given what we know will happen when Omicron inevitably gets into the community and the pace with which it will happen.”

Organisers noted the level of disruption caused overseas by the rapidly spreading Omicron variant and cited the role that large and outdoor gatherings have played during outbreaks in places such as Victoria as another factor sitting behind the decision.

Just this week, the Prime Minister said that we should assume that Omicron will appear in the community “at any time” and people should “prepare now”.

Labour’s Rainbow caucus chair and Northcote MP Shanan Halbert said the decision to cancel the Big Gay Out was “understandable”, but it would be a disappointment for Auckland’s Rainbow communities.

“More than 10,000 people flock to the fabulousness of the Big Gay Out every year. The cancellation of the biggest event in Auckland’s Pride Festival is understandable in a world where the Omicron variant continues to spread. As the prime minister has said it is a matter of when, not if, Omicron arrives in Aotearoa.

“This would have been a hard call for the organisers to make, but it is the right decision,” Halbert said.

The Ending HIV Big Gay Out is one of the larger free annual summer events and attracts 15,000 to 20,000 people.

The last time the event was cancelled was in 2018 due to extreme adverse weather on the day.