SOUTH AFRICA WINS BID TO HOST MR GAY WORLD 2015

South Africa will host next year’s annual Mr Gay World™ contest. The announcement was made during the grand finale of the 2014 competition on Saturday night in Rome, Italy, in which 25 delegates from around the world competed for the coveted title.

South Africa previously successfully hosted the event in Johannesburg in 2012. The latest bid was mounted by the organisers of the annual Pink Loerie Mardi Gras & Arts Festival, and sees the country becoming the first-ever to host the event twice.

The week-long Mr Gay World 2015 contest will coincide with next year’s Globeflight Pink Loerie Mardi Gras & Arts Festival Knysna 2015 in association with TRIARC & MRGSA. It will be held in both Knysna and Cape Town, with the grand finale taking place in the Mother City on Sunday 3 May 2015.

“We’re honoured and humbled to have been chosen to once again host this prestigious event, which will highlight lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) inequality on the continent,” said Pink Loerie’s John O’Neil.

“South Africa and the Western Cape have abundant natural beauty that’s hard to beat anywhere else in the world, and we have the infrastructure, experience and talent to make the event a truly memorable one,” he added.

Coenie Kukkuk, Mr Gay World Director for Africa & Middle East, congratulated the bid committee. “We are confident that South Africa will once again deliver a world-class, yet uniquely African, experience for the delegates, judges and grand finale audience,” he said.

The successful bid was backed by Globeflight Worldwide Courier Services; TRIARC, Africa’s first specialist LGBTI insurance provider; Mr Gay South Africa (Pty) Ltd; Knysna Tourism; Knysna Municipality; and Wesgro, Cape Town and the Western Cape’s official tourism, trade and investment promotion agency.