Highland Pride committee chair Sand Owsnett reflects on 'mind-blowing' amount of work that has gone into event at Northern Meeting Park in Inverness later this month
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After 10 long months, Highland Pride is finally approaching.
The event celebrating LGBTQ+ identities will take place on Saturday, July 22 after close to a year of painstaking work from the Highland Pride committee to put on an event to be proud of.
Recent years have been a somewhat turbulent time for the committee. It has an entirely different make-up compared to the last time a Pride event was held in Inverness back in 2019, with Covid responsible for cancellations in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
That means it is a whole new group that sat down to organise this month's march and party in the Northern Meeting Park, led by Sand Owsnett as chair.
There have been regular meetings with Highland Council and emergency services to make license requirements will be complied with, with the scope for up to 4000 people to attend the Meeting Park.
While the days immediately before Highland Pride 2023 will be hectic as the final preparations are made, the bulk of the hard work has been done – and it has already been an eye-opening experience for everyone involved.
"We're nearly at the end of 10 months of planning this event – and the big stuff has been done," they said.
"We quickly realised that the sheer amount of work that needs to be done is mind-blowing. We all work so we're organising this in our spare time, and we have learned a lot so next time will be much smoother.
"Hindsight is a great thing as well. We've had a few comments asking if we've thought about this or that, and the answer is usually yes we have, but that will have to be dealt with differently next time.
"We've been incredibly busy to do what we actually have so far. There are things that will be quite big for some people that we've just not been able to deal with, because logistics have defeated us and there just aren't enough of us for the area that the Highlands covers.
"Some people will have gone to another Pride event – like Grampian, one of Grampian's satellite events, or Edinburgh Pride – and come back with a comment like 'they've done that differently'. The licensing or venue requirements could be different, so there are things that need to be considered in isolation of other people's events.
"Maybe after the event, these are the points we can learn from – the funding, the resourcing, the tickets, the different requirements of doing something in Inverness compared to doing something in Edinburgh. We'll be asking for feedback, so no doubt the stuff that we're already hearing about will come up again."
While it has undoubtedly been a stressful time bringing Highland Pride 2023 together, the committee will finally be able to see their hard work paying off later this month.
After that, thoughts will eventually turn to next year – and how to make the whole process smoother for everyone involved.
"We haven't really had the chance to think about it yet, but we will enjoy the event – we have to really," Owsnett added.
"It kind of makes you think that things might need to be done differently next year, because we can't spend the next 10 months of our life giving up so much of our personal time on something like this. It's not sustainable.
"If there's an event next year – and we'll need to consider if we want to do an event next year – we'll need to think about how we do it differently and how we get people involved much earlier.
"We might go completely different next time and do a number of small events as opposed to doing a big event in one area – but then that requires planning and volunteers to get involved and organise that, and it also requires money.
"Funding is a big thing, as are people. A small committee can't do it all on their own, it's a lot of work and we've been so stretched.
"People getting involved in the committee and event management much earlier, becoming a volunteer and helping to manage the volunteers much earlier will help future events.
"It will also help us determine what the best way to do things in the future will be and what logistics are doable."
