Marcus Collins to headline Liverpool Pride

MARCUS COLLINS isset to headline Liverpool Pride 2012, to be held at the city’s iconic Pier-Head and in the Stanley Street Gay Quarter on Saturday 4 August.

Collins shot to fame when he came second in the X-Factor 2011. Since then, he has gone on to release his debut single and top 10 hit ‘Seven Nation Army’ and his self titled debut album, which also reached the top 10 in the UK album charts. At Liverpool Pride, Marcus will perform a mixture of his album tracks including his new single ‘Mercy’ and songs he performed on the X-Factor.

Marcus said: ‘I'm so excited to be involved with Liverpool Pride, it's such an amazing event and in such a vibrant city it's bound to be an incredible celebration!’ I love the gay community and I love that I can be a big part of it, even if it’s only by keeping the bars open! The awareness of the gay community that Liverpool Pride generates in the city makes it safer and more fun for everyone, and every year the event gets bigger and more fun. I'm honoured to be a part of it.’

Collins is the first artist that festival organisers have announced will perform on the ‘Nautical but Nice’ themed waterfront main stage. A boatload of other local, national and international artists is to be announced within the coming weeks.

Zoran Blackie, Chair of Liverpool Pride said: We’re delighted that Marcus will be headlining Liverpool Pride 2012. As a gay man from the city, it seemed like the perfect choice to get him on board for this year’s festival. Part of our core values are championing local acts and Marcus is certainly one of our brightest new talents. He’s doing a lot for the LGB&T community across the UK and is proving to be somewhat of a role model for younger gay people. I can’t wait to hear him perform, and for free, on our Pier-Head main stage!’

Liverpool Pride is the biggest FREE gay Pride festival outside of London, in the UK. In just two years, Liverpool Pride has established itself as one of the major highlights in the city and the wider LGBandT community’s summer calendar. Bursting onto the scene in 2010, the inaugural Liverpool Pride festival attracted over 20,000 people, which was doubled to over 44,000 in 2011.

For 2012 Festival organisers are promising the best event yet, a festival whichLiverpool’s LGBandT community is proud of, attracting people from across the country to experience the diverse culture of one of Europe’s most exciting cities. With Collins topping the bill, allowing his hometown fans to see him for free, this seems something which is ever more certain.

The festival came about following the launch of the LGBandT Network, at which the public voted for a Pride festival to engage, empower and involve the LGBandT communities within the city. This was fully endorsed by Liverpool City Council in January 2009. Following a number of high profile attacks in the city, the event was established in 2010 and now takes place each year to coincide with the anniversary of murdered gay teenager Michael Causer.

Liverpool Pride 2012 will take place at Liverpool’s iconic pier-head and throughout the Stanley Street Gay Quarter. In addition to this, there will be a weekend of cultural events taking place at some of Liverpool’s most influential arts and cultural establishments. The festival’s ‘Nautical but Nice’ theme, chosen in a ballot by 700 members of the local LGBT community, gives a nod to the city’s commemoration of the 100 year anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, whilst at the same time, celebrating the city’s rich maritime history and taking advantage of the main festival site, which sits on the banks of the River Mersey.

Applications are still open for the Liverpool Pride March. Individuals, groups and organisations are invited to take part by registering online at www.liverpoolpride.co.uk/march before 31st July. 

Make sure you check out liverpoolpride.co.uk, @LiverpoolPride on Twitter and search Liverpool Pride on Facebook to have your say and for all of the latest pride news.

Article posted by Musicmafia

Liverpool Pride announces 2012 festival date and fundraising campaign

Liverpool Pride announces 2012 festival

LIVERPOOL PRIDE RETURNS FOR 2012

FESTIVAL’S FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN BEGINS IN EARNEST EARLIER THAN EVER BEFORE

Liverpool Pride is to return on Saturday 4 August 2012.

Organisers have announced that the main festival site will remain at the Pier Head. However, a presence will definitely be maintained in the Gay Quarter thanks to a close working partnership between Liverpool Pride and the Liverpool Gay Business Association, the collective that organised Stanley Street Pride in 2011.

Liverpool Pride is one of the biggest FREE LGBT Pride festivals in the country, with over 40,000 people attending the event in 2011, double the 2010 figure of 20,000. A study completed by Liverpool Pride showed that 2011’s festival generated a total spend of over £2.6 million* for the local economy as people spent money on hotels, travel, clothes, food and drink. The study also showed that a large number of Pride Goers booked their trips to Liverpool Pride more than two months in advance.

Faced with Liverpool City Council’s proposal to cut all funding to festivals, organisers have taken the decision to start fundraising for the festival much earlier than ever before and have devised an all year round fundraising campaign will begin from 2012 onwards.  The Liverpool Pride Board of Trustees is adamant that it will continue its core work of combating homophobia and transphobia in the city, whilst maintaining a free festival to ensure that everyone feels welcome. 

The fundraising campaign will launch with the Camp as Christmas event, produced by Hope Street based Orb Events who have previously worked with Liverpool Pride on their 2010 & 2011 festivals. The event, which promises to be Liverpool’s ultimate LGBT Christmas night out,  will take place at newly opened venue The Dome, Renshaw Street, on Saturday 17 December, starring X-Factor duo Diva Fever, actor, writer and comedian Rikki Beadle Blair and a whole host of local talent including Caz & Brit, Barbieshop, Emma Dears and Liverpool’s finest drag queens. 

There are also Liverpool Pride runners in the city’s Santa Dash and a series of smaller fundraising events, to be held throughout 2012. Liverpool Pride will also bid for funds through applications to trusts and large public sector organisations as well as through corporate sponsorship from the private sector on both a local and national level.

To date, Liverpool Pride has already received funding from Merseyside Police Authority for its 2012 soccer project and from the Big Lottery Fund. The money from which has been used to recruit a Volunteer Manager as well as funding the Liverpool Pride 365 Cultural Visions project, which will work with LGBT people to produce art, photography and theatre, celebrating gay culture in Liverpool.

As part of the Liverpool Pride 2012 fundraising campaign, the organisation is also asking local businesses and individuals to run fundraising events such as bring and buy sales, cake bake offs and sponsored drag days, walks, runs and any other ways in which they would like to raise money. Businesses and individuals who are interested in supporting Liverpool Pride 2012 in any way are invited to contact James Davies, Liverpool Pride Trustee on 0151 709 5069 or james.davies@liverpoolpride.co.uk.

More information on the Camp as Christmas event can be found at www.thedomegrandcentral.com.

James Davies of Liverpool Pride said: We’re delighted to be able to announce Liverpool Pride 2012 and can’t wait to start on the road to creating something that is truly special once more. Although we face some funding cuts due to wider cuts in public spending, we’re determined to make Liverpool Pride 2012 even bigger and better than ever before and can only do that with the help of Liverpool, as a council, as a community and as a business collective. We’re grateful to the City Council and to the likes of the European Regional Development Fund as well as our sponsors for all of their support thus far and hope that, despite budget cuts, we can continue to work with them in the coming years.

We believe that this festival is one hundred percent worthwhile and that it is truly helpful for raising awareness of LGBT issues, specifically reducing homophobia in the city in addition to being good value for money for funders as the festival brings a relatively large amount of money into the city’s economy over the course of the Pride weekend.

We made the festival into a massive success in 2011 even though we faced a 60% cut in our funding from the City Council and we’re determined to do it again even if further cuts should occur. We will continue the work of Liverpool Pride and have set out on a mammoth fundraising campaign to ensure that the 2012 festival is free, safe and enjoyable for everyone and we would ask you to support the forthcoming fundraising events such as the wonderful Camp as Christmas show produced by Orb Events as well as getting involved on an individual and a corporate level to join with us and ensure that Liverpool Pride 2012 is an event that is worthy of Liverpool’s gay community.”