Words by Nick Bassett
With a forecast of 28 degrees and a slight breeze, the scene was set for a perfect Pride March.
Alan and Trent met early at my place and after packing the banners and various items for the March we headed off; Me in “Hattie”, my green 1965 Humber Super Snipe, Alan in “Colin” my ‘purple identifying’ 1990 TP Magna Elite Wagon, and Trent piloted “Bumble Bee” my yellow 1987 ZL Fairlane.
We arrived at Lakeside Drive just on 9:00am and set up camp in the vehicle marshalling area.
Rounding out our pride display, we were soon joined by Doug in his orange 1976 VW Beetle. Mike and Cesc in the blue 1966 Plymouth Fury, and Mat and Goran in Mat’s red 1986 Honda Civic.
Other vehicles joining us were Paul & Rhys in Paul’s Beige 1982 Landcruiser, Brett and his orange 1987 VL Commodore and last, but certainly not least, Stevie’s 1999 VW Harlequin Polo – in lots of colours!
Colin arrived in his CLK320 and headed right to the top of the parade, as he was ferrying the indigenous elders.
After the usual shuffling of cars to get them all in the correct order, the parade commenced right on 11:00am. We were also joined by Leigh, Chris, Lach & Damien who came along for the ride down Fitzroy street in various vehicles.
Our marching contingent waving flags and carrying banners was made up of Paul, Chris G, Russell, Gordon, Anthony, and we were joined by Colin (who had time to get back to the marshalling area)!
Turning off after the parade route, we parked our rainbow display in Cantani Gardens to make our “Driving with Pride” display. (Alas, Mike and Cesc were unable to stay, so we were blue-less.)
Some of us wandered the park looking at the various groups and attractions, and others adjourned for lunch.
By 4:00pm, the Marshalls began packing the site down and our vehicles were escorted out of the gardens.
Later that night we managed to get featured on both Channel 7 and SBS news 🙂
The “Driving with Pride” rainbow display has proven effective and I hope we can do it all again next year – so if you have a vehicle that would suit the rainbow display or you just want to be in the parade as a vehicle or marcher – please keep it in mind for 2023!
