The two-week Canberra Pride SpringOUT festival begins with a colourful fair with music, food and art in Acton on Saturday, just two days after marriage registrations began for gay couples.

And while organisers David Sequeira and Ben O'Reilly say Canberra Pride is not a marriage equality organisation, they are not complaining that a national conversation coincides with their community event.

"We're an organisation really set up to bring issues around queer identity to the foreground and celebrate that culture,'' Mr Sequeira said.

''But marriage equality is, of course, a serious concern for us.

"I think the ACT has been particularly forward-thinking in this area. Australia needs to wake up."

With no government funding, the 14-year-old festival relies on the support of community organisations such as Pink Tennis, the AIDS Action Council and local businesses such as Cube, Fuse magazine and Typeyard - along with a huge personal effort from a committee that all have other full-time jobs.

Mr Sequeira said the festival was all-inclusive, not just for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community, with performances from ARIA-award winning pianist Sally Whitwell and a screening of popular 1980s film Victor Victoria.

One of the final events will be a conversation with renowned prosecutor Mark Tedeschi QC about a historical court case, a little over a week before a High Court challenge to the ACT's same-sex marriage law.

The talk will be based on Mr Tedeschi's book Eugenia, which follows the life of Harry Crawford, a man put on trial for his wife's murder in 1920.

In turn, Crawford was revealed to be a woman named Eugenia Falleni, who had been living as a man for 22 years.

While it is well off the present-day hot topic of gay marriage - which Crown prosecutor Mr Tedeschi will not comment on while it is before the courts - it is an issue that still resonates with members of the LGBTI community.

Mr Tedeschi said while it was the trial that originally caught his attention, it became clear one of the key issues was society's views on identity.

"My interest was also very much taken by this incredible story of this person who spent 22 years living as a man in Sydney, very successfully, and I thought that must have been an amazingly difficult thing to do," he said. "[We] have a lot more understanding of transgender issues today than we did in the past.

''There's still a lot of prejudice but there's also a lot of support and a lot more understanding."

He said he had been approached by a number of transgender people who had thanked him for writing the book, which has helped raise awareness about the issue. "They say it was sensitively written and they're pleased that those sorts of issues are in a book that's being read by members of the general community."

Mr Tedeschi's talk will take place on November 23 as part of the festival. For more details about the talk, about Saturday's fair or about other events, go to springout.com.au.