Liverpool Pride parade is on 28 July. | Photo: Courtesy of Liverpool Pride
Now in its eighth year, Liverpool Pride will return to the city in north-western England for a festival to remember on 28 and 29 July.
Liverpool Pride Weekend will be a free two-day festival filled with music, entertainment, and food and drink stalls.
Saturday’s events will take place at Tithebarn Street, a few steps away from the city’s Gay Quarter. Sunday’s events, on the other hand, will happen across the city with a Sundae Funday festival hub at The Bluecoat on School Lane.
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The parade
The annual parade will take place on 28 July. Beginning at St. Georges Hall, participants will weave their way through the city in a sea of color to celebrate the festival’s theme #AllTogetherNow. The march will end at Moorfields.
Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Courtney Act will perform
After Pride in London, Sophie Ellis-Bextor will take the main stage at Liverpool Pride | Photo: @sophieellisbextor/Instagram
Following the parade, the festival will take the city with three different stages.
- The Barclays Main Stage, situated by the iconic Superlambanana (28 July)
- The Manchester Airport San Francisco stage, in the square between Vernon Street and Cunliffe Street (28 July)
- Sundae Funday at The Bluecoat (29 July)
Headlining the main stage is pop icon Sophie Ellis-Bextor. International drag star and Celebrity Big Brother winner Courtney Act, the cast of Kinky Boots, House of Suarez, Rogue Minogue, Queen Zee will also join the lineup.
The Liverpool Queer Collective created a unique cabaret programme for Manchester Airport San Francisco Stage.
Day two of the festival will be a family-focused Sunday featuring dance, arts and craft activities, food market, and barbecue in the Bluecoat Garden, alongside Pride events at the International Slavery Museum, Walker Art Gallery, Museum of Liverpool and Liverpool Cathedral.
Read the full list of events here.
Winner of Celebrity Big Brother Courtney Act will join the lineup on 28 July. | Photo: Magnus Hastings/Instagram
Come Out of the Shadows
Returning for the third consecutive year, the Come Out of the Shadows campaign lights up the city’s most iconic buildings in the colors of the rainbow and trans flags from 19 July to 2 August. Buildings lighting up include St John’s Beacon, Anfield, St Georges Hall, and Liverpool Town Hall.
The origins of Liverpool Pride
The city which was home to the Beatles had its first Pride parade in 2010. Back then, the celebration started with a tragic meaning attached to it.
Liverpool Pride was, in fact, set up in response to the aftermath of the murder of young gay man Michael Causer.
18-year-old Causer was beaten up because of his sexual orientation during a house party on 25 July 2008. He later died of the brain injuries reported. To commemorate his death, the parade still takes place around the date of the attack.
Read more about Prides:
Forget all your bad dances: this inclusive Brighton prom is beautiful and queer AF
