Hero programme

This programme was created for the 1994 Hero Festival held in Auckland.

Hero was a hugely popular annual event which ran from 1992 to 2001, and featured a flamboyant street parade, dance parties and performances throughout the city. Hero intended to commemorate the heroes who were fighting against AIDS, and boost LGBTQI+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex) pride and health. The festivals drew huge crowds and were vibrant and safe places to publicly express identity and sexuality, and were welcoming to all.

The 1990s in general saw a blossoming of gay and lesbian pride. Hero – and Devotion in Wellington – were some of the more public fruits of change in society following on from Homosexual Law Reform in 1986. Hero was particularly ground-breaking with its vibrant street parade which at times caused controversy for overt expressions of sexuality.

Festival programmes were published most years detailing the events and including topical articles. The look and feel of each programme was determined by a group of designers and enthusiasts, who gave many hours of voluntary labour to create the branding and collateral needed for the festival each year, including posters, programmes, printed t-shirts and singlets.

This 1994 programme captures some of these contemporary expressions of identity and sexuality. It was also unusual for its size (being almost as big as a weekend newspaper) and for its colourful floral cover image. One of the designers, Peter Roband, recalled that the ‘optimistic, positive and bright’ cover caused some tensions, particularly among some gay men who ‘wanted something saucier’ (2020).