Knysna swathed itself in lurid magenta last weekend in celebration of the Pink Loerie mardi gras, a very gay event that brings up to R8-million to the seaside resort in the off-season.
For the fifth incarnation of the festival, shopkeepers from hairdressers to leather-and-feather vendors decorated their shopfronts with pink bunting or festooned them with pink-dyed ostrich feathers.
Others managed to hoist the rainbow flag that has become an international symbol of gay rights (and gay commerce) — though some, in their enthusiasm for the ‘pink randâ€, raised it upside down.
On the flight down to Knysna from Johannesburg I heard a group of gay men, very much in a party mood, giggling to each other: ‘If anyone asks,†said one, ‘we’re going to a golf day.†I submit that no one overhearing this chatter would have been fooled, though there was indeed a gay golf day on offer at a resort with several world-class golf courses.
The Pink Loeries have nothing to do with the advertising industry award; rather, they appropriate and re-colour Knysna’s totemic bird (which is usually green). The mardi gras began on Freedom Day and minced finally to a c lose on April 30, with the central weekend offering the largest number of events.
Its centrepiece is the Saturday parade down Knysna’s main street, with a plethora of floats bearing drag queens, dancers and various people in outrageous costumes, including the hitherto infrequent union of Christian dykes on bikes (well, two of them).
Almost all participants were white. The local populace turned out in force to watch, laugh and cheer as the parade took roughly an hour to proceed a kilometre or so. Many locals were well-sozzled by the start time of 3pm, and most gay guests seem to have caught up by nightfall.
Knysna thrives on the year-end holiday season, but supplements its income with festivals at other times of the year.
Apart from the Pink Loerie, there is the world-famous oyster festival and a lesser-known Rasta fest later in the year.
Local organisers’ hopes that the Pink Loerie would bring in some extra cash for the town seem to have been realised — if their estimate of some 8000 visitors spending an average of R1000 each is accurate.
Certainly local guest houses, shops, bars and clubs were only too happy to see paying customers in a wet, chilly April. The town has no dedicated gay bars or clubs, but venues such as Zanzibar and @58 went gay for the weekend, hosting events ranging from underwear shows to a Mr Pink Loerie competition, a White Party, a sakkie-sakkie ‘gat party†in the tradition of rural gay gatherings, a ‘girlz-only†event with DJ Lady Lea, and an Electric Circus Party (featuring a cellist in dominatrix gear, a saxophonist and two performers going as lions and famed Therapy DJ Stuart H) thrown by Pretoria club Legends.
Other events included performances by stars such as Danielle Pascale and Stefan Ludik, as well as art shows and wine tasting.
Many of the activities were standard Knysna in-season offerings, but given a gay twist: a lagoon ‘booze cruise†became a gay lagoon ‘booze cruiseâ€, and so on.
The whole affair had an appealingly relaxed, ramshackle air. Several advertised events fell by the wayside, to the disappointment of no one in particular.
A race for men in high heels down the aptly named Queen Street failed to materialise, and, perhaps unsurprisingly, a ‘Secret Destination†party could not be located by this reporter.
By Sunday, most people I spoke to seemed to be complaining of savage hangovers. So it must have been fun.