The move comes after organisers agreed that the site was more financially viable in the current economic climate and also that it was better suited to this year’s ‘Summer of Love’ theme. Moving to the city’s waterfront will allow Liverpool Pride to deliver a festival which the city’s LGBT community deserve and can be proud of.
Tommy McIlravey Chair of Liverpool Pride said ‘We are delighted to be able to use the Pier Head for Liverpool Pride 2011. It is a wonderful space and part of the iconic waterfront of Liverpool that is recognisable throughout the world. Being there is a real symbol of how much Merseyside is behind the Liverpool Pride event. We have always strived to make lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people more visible and more valued, and this feels like the perfect place to do both.
Obviously, we were disappointed to have to move out of Dale Street and the gay quarter but, like just about every charity at the moment, we have had to tighten our belts in order to survive. Closing such a huge area of the city centre is a difficult and expensive operation, so we had to look at a range of alternative spaces for Liverpool Pride, including some outside the city centre. None of the other options even came close to the Pier Head in terms of accessibility, grandeur and, dare I say, fabulousness! It is a nice big space to so there is room for tens of thousands of people to come and celebrate the Summer of Love with us on the 6th August – please make sure you are one of them.
The route of the Liverpool Pride March has been finalised, with organisers certain that it will still start at St George’s Plateau at 12pm and process through the city’s streets, taking in Lime Street, Queen Square bus station and Whitechapel before turning into Lord Street and carrying on along Castle Street, turning left at the Town Hall and continuing down Water Street, crossing The Strand and arriving at the new festival site on the Waterfront at around 1.30pm. Organisations and individuals who wish to take part in the march are encouraged to sign up at www.liverpoolpride.co.uk/march
Despite the main festival site, which was to be located on Dale Street, being moved to the Pier Head, there will still be some activity taking place in and around the Gay Quarter. All of the Gay Bars and venues including those on Stanley Street, Victoria Street and Cumberland Street will remain open throughout the day and night for revellers to enjoy and Gbar and Garlands are to join forces, producing a dance area that will be situated in close proximity to the Eberle Street venues.
The Liverpool Pride programming team is hard at work finalising the line up for this year’s festival, which will be announced in due course. The new Pier Head site is sure to be transformed into the perfect ‘hippie hangout’ with exciting live acts, side show performances, entertainment, music, market stalls, food outlets and bars, ensuring that Liverpool Pride 2011 is as much of a hit with the LGBT community as the inaugural 2010 event.
For more information, please visit www.liverpoolpride.co.uk
Before 2010, Liverpool was the largest city in the country that didn’t have its own official pride festival. Liverpool Pride came about following the launch of the LGB&T Network in 2009, at which the public voted for a pride festival to engage, empower and involve the LGB&T communities within the city. This was fully endorsed by Liverpool City Council and the first official Liverpool Pride Festival saw over 21,000 people take to the streets of Liverpool in celebration of all things LGBT. It is hoped that Liverpool Pride 2011 will build on this success and will celebrate the diverse community of one of Europe’s leading cultural cities once more.
Liverpool pride will be held on the 6th August 2011
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