Liverpool Pride has been cancelled this year amid “significant financial and organisational challenges”.
Organiser of the event, the LCR (Liverpool City Region) Pride Foundation, shared the news on social media over the weekend.
A statement from the board of directors confirmed that the event, due to take place on 26 July, will not go ahead due to “significant financial and organisational challenges, which have impacted timescales and resulted in it reverting to an almost entirely volunteer-led operation”.
The board of directors added that alongside “rising costs and difficulty securing national and local funding”, they had took the decision, having listened to the community, to “sever our relationship with Barclays”.
They added: “Our priority now is to ensure that we have a sustainable foundation.”
Despite the event not going ahead, they noted: “We will work to promote other events and activities taking place over Pride weekend, and will also be supporting our fantastic regional Prides, who have a summer of celebration planned across boroughs”.
The organisers are now seeking new trustees to ensure the event goes ahead in future years.
Any march restoration fees paid for this year will be refunded. The events hopes to return in 2026.
Last year, Liverpool Pride hosted a march on behalf of Kyiv Pride, with members from Ukraine and other parts of Europe joining them.
The act of kindness resulted in the event pulling in the largest number ever to attend: 60,000 people.
At the time, Andi Herring, the chief executive of LCR Pride Foundation, told PinkNews: “No matter where you are in the world, you are affected by people wanting to remove our rights, wanting to not allow us to live our free lives as we should be able to – and that applies whether it’s here, in Ukraine or anywhere [else].”
Pride in Liverpool was previously cancelled in 2021 due to uncertainty around mass public gatherings amid the Covid pandemic.
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