Awards shortlist for Oban Lesbian Weekend founder Maz

The festival-come package holiday is the only small business finalist for the travel awards at the Proud Scotland Awards ceremony on Saturday.

By Rita Campbell

June 2 2023, 6:08 pm

Oban Lesbian Weekend founder Maz Gordon, (second from right) with staff from her dad's shop, a highlight for many attendees. From left, Alanna MacKenzie, Fiona Dow and Meggie Pick. Image: Supplied.

A weekend event in Oban has been shortlisted for a prestigious national award.

Oban Lesbian Weekend is the only small business to make the travel shortlist at the Proud Scotland Awards 2023.

The organisers are up against corporate giants such as Enterprise, First Bus Group and Virgin Atlantic.

Maz Gordon, founder of Oban Lesbian Weekend, is taking her management team to the awards in Glasgow on Saturday night.

Maz Gordon with a plate of oysters at her family’s businesses, the green shack, a popular attraction at Oban Lesbian Weekend.

The awards take place at the Radisson Blu. They celebrate outstanding work by organisations or individuals which support the LGBTQ+ community.

What is Oban Lesbian Weekend?

This inclusive weekend is for all LGBTQ women, non binary people and allies of any gender.

The weekend sold out in its inaugural year in 2022.

Tickets for this year’s event, from July 28-31, are nearly sold out.

Maz’s rules are simple. Treat others with respect and support the LGBTQ community and you are welcome.

Paddle boarding, wild swimming and hikes to castles are part of the Oban Lesbian Weekend itinerary.

Now she has been hailed as helping to turn Oban into a mini Brighton, with better scenery and a friendly Scottish attitude.

Business is in her blood. Maz, 43, is daughter of the late John Ogden, who made Oban the Seafood Capital of Scotland with his green shack on the pier.

As well as running OutNewsGlobal online magazine and Oban Lesbian Weekend, she is also a mum.

Langoustines were the only thing served up on a silver platter

Maz said: “I was paid 80p an hour, aged 10, when we opened the shop back in 1990. But I was never given a silver spoon.

“Perhaps a wooden spoon. The only thing that came on a silver platter were langoustines and other seafood we sold at my dad’s shop.”

What followed led to a worldwide career in various sales and media roles.

Maz with Siobhan Fahey, producer of the Rebel Dykes documentary, which will be part of the workshop at Oban Lesbian Weekend.

Next she took a host of shows to LA and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Back in the UK, she spotted an ad for sales people at g3 magazine while travelling on a London bus.

G3 was run by Sarah Garrett MBE and Linda Riley. Linda is now publisher of DIVA magazine, and a leading LGBTQ activist, having been the LGBTQ advisor to Jeremy Corbyn and others in the Labour party.

Some of Oban Lesbian Weekend’s crew outside Markie Dan’s pub in Oban, at the inaugural event in August 2022.

By 2009 with Lottie Dingle as Editor and Maz at the helm, g3 magazine defied the norm, beating many large corporate media outlets including the Guardian and Herald to win the prestigious Stonewall Publication of the Year.

Last year was the first Oban Lesbian Weekend.

Today Maz owns OutNewsGlobal – billed the world’s ‘most fabulous’ LGBTQ magazine – launched in 2012.

She is looking forward to the Proud Scotland Awards.

This year’s Oban Lesbian Weekend is in memory of the amazing Lottie Dingle. Lottie died suddenly and tragically, due to chronic health complications in September 2022. Sadly, the day she died was also the day she was to be announced as OutNewsGlobal’s new Editor in Chief. Lottie had really wanted to attend Oban Lesbian Weekend. She is sorely missed.

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