The Hero festival is ready to make a sequinned splash again

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" I am nervous about the fact that two events are weather- dependent. And I'm nervous about whether my dressmaker is going to come through on time.

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By Geraldine Johns

THINGS were looking pretty sick for the annual showcase of Auckland's gay community - the Hero Parade - last year. Crippled by a money crisis, riven with recriminations over the sudden departure of its chief executive and with its affairs left in the hands of an undischarged bankrupt, the Hero charitable trust was in tatters.

The chances of the city coming out to play in the 2002 version of the parade looked grim indeed.