2022 will see the first in-person Pride in Liverpool march and festival in the city since 2019 with registrations for those wishing to take part in the march now open. Tony McDonough reports
LCR Pride Foundation has opened registrations for March with Pride 2022 – the first large-scale in-person event in Liverpool since before the pandemic in 2019.
Prior to COVID-19 Pride in Liverpool was one of the biggest events in the Liverpool visitor economy calendar, attracting around 50,000 people. Its cancellation in 2020 and 2021 was a blow not just to the LGBT+ community but to the city centre’s bars, restaurants and hotels.
Last summer there was a series of Pride Quarter indoor events across 13 venues which was supported by LCR Pride and in 2020 and 2021 LCR Pride held a virtual MarchOnline, comprising videos of individuals marching, cheering and holding placards in their own homes and workplaces. It reached an audience of 2m people.
However, on Saturday, July 30, March with Pride proper will return along with the Pride in Liverpool festival. Organisers are asking people and organisations who want to take part in the march, which in 2019 attracted more than 12,000 people, to register online.
Held in locations all around the world, Pride marches and festivals see members of the LGBT+ community and its allies come together to march in solidarity, celebration and protest against the prejudice and inequalities faced by LGBT+ people across the globe.
They are inspired by the Stonewall rebellion in New York in 1969 which saw a series of spontaneous demonstrations following a police raid of the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village neighbourhood. People fought back when the police started using violence.
Full details of March with Pride 2022, including the route and the venue of the festival, will be released at a later date. Andi Herring, chief executive and co-founder of LCR Pride Foundation, said: “Pride has always been a protest and that is why the Liverpool city region’s march remains the centrepiece of our annual event.
“While we are excited to physically come together in the spirit of celebration for the first time in almost three years, we will also march to highlight and protest the discrimination, danger and inequality that the LGBT+ community is facing in the UK and beyond.”
Registrations for concession stands are also now open online, click here, and artists interested in performing at Pride in Liverpool can contact the team by clicking here. Individuals wishing to take part in the March with Pride should register online by Friday, July 15, by clicking here.