Liverpool Pride cancels most of festival over funding shortfall
Liverpool Pride is to face a drastic reduction in scale, after a funding shortfall led it to cancel most of the planned festivities.
The Pride event had been set to go ahead on August 1, with plans for the city to close off multiple roads for a festival site, including a ticketed area and performances on a stage on the Pier Head.
However, amid a failure to raise enough funds to pay for the event, organisers have been forced to cancel most of the planned events in a bid to rescue the festival.
In a bid to reduce the overspending, the entire main stage event has been dropped, as have the ticketed area and alcohol drinking zones. Roads will no longer be closed in the Stanley Street Quarter to make way for the event.
However, despite the shortfall in funding, organisers insist that the main Pride march will still go ahead.
Liverpool Pride trustee Joan Burnett told the Liverpool Echo: “No-one is more disappointed that we are, but after last year’s [bad] weather we didn’t cover the costs of the event.
“We are a charity run by volunteers, and as such we don’t have the money it would take to put on an event of that scale again.
“We have been working with fundraisers to try to get a main sponsor, but despite some very kind donations and the support of the city council we haven’t been able to get enough together to fund a large scale event this year.”
She added: “We had to make sure that the most important parts of the day could still happen. The Pride March and the Michael Causer Vigil will still go ahead, and we want to get as many people involved as possible in making them a huge success.
“They are both free and both absolutely vital in sending out a message to our communities.
“Everyone is welcome to join in and we would love to see as many people attending those events, which have always been at the heart of Pride itself.”
