With a purple origami swan underneath a rainbow-coloured mirror ball design, the newly-revealed poster for Perth’s annual LGBT Pride festival also features some controversial names sometimes used to describe our people.

This year called Pridefest and incorporating several events in October and November, this year’s events include “a combination of community events, comedy, music, performance and visual entertainment aimed as every aspect of the community,” say the organising team at PrideWA.

The inclusive festival is aimed at everyone, whether they’re gay, transsexual, heterosexual or however they identify, say the crew. And its theme of ‘definitions’ may test boundaries, make people talk and make the community think…

Each word in the Pridefest poster is accompanied by its original Oxford English Dictionary definition. “As you can see, some have limited relevance to their meaning today but the majority’s meanings have been distorted and are completely unrelated,” says the festival’s crew.

“Definitions are often received as being negative and what we want to do is break through those barriers. The words on this year’s poster are shocking, and some are offensive and may upset people. What we are trying to show is that while some definitions can add value to our lives, we are bigger than the labels and definitions we are given.”

Here’s the key dates for this year’s festival:

Launch event – Friday 7 September

Fairday – Saturday 6 October at Russell Square in Northbridge. Contact: fairday@pridewa.com.au.

Pridefest – Monday 15 October until Saturday 3 November

Gfest – TBC. This is the main rural event scheduled within PrideFest and run by Gay Midwest in conjunction with Pride WA. Incorporates the DraG-Games and Fair Day and the GFEST Performance eXtravaganza.

Parade – Saturday 3 November from the corner of William and Brisbane St to the corner of James and Parker St. Contact parade@pridewa.com.au.

Pridefest After-Party and Her Pridefest Female After-Party – TBC.

Find out more about Perth’s Pridefest 2012 on its official website here.

Photos from last year’s Perth Pride events are shown below.