It has been 26 years since Victoria’s inaugural Pride March, an event that far exceeded the organiser expectations both in size and the veracity to which it was received.“It started because Melbourne didn’t have an event like a Pride March,” Penny McDonald, one of the original event organisers recalls. “The first one in 1996 was huge, we thought if we get 100 or so people that would be good, I think there was about 11,000.