Auckland Pride Festival: Organisers already planning for 2020

Sunday is the last day of the Auckland Pride Festival, but organisers are already looking towards next year's event.

The 2019 festival was plagued with controversy when the police pulled out of the parade after they were asked not to wear their uniforms at the event.

This led to other sponsors pulling out, and there was question over whether a parade would even happen after members of the LGBTQ community became divided over the police uniform debate.

Spokesperson Cissy Rock said it is time for a review so that next year's festival runs more smoothly.

"It's important that we create some space to get different opinions about it, get some thoughts so we can start collectively, as a community, working out what will work for us in the future."

Organisers are meeting on Sunday afternoon to discuss what went well this year, and iron out some problems between now and next year.

"I'm not sure what steps we need to take to ensure all voices can be heard, because what I'm hearing now is there are still some people that would like to see some changes," said Ms Rock.

"We'll be wanting to hear from our membership what's worked, where there's room for improvement, and really put that into the planning cycle very early on."

The Pride Board has already started a Givealittle page to start funding for next year's event.

Newshub.