Blackpool Pride: Twenty Years on the Prom

Before Pride

By the early 2000s Blackpool had been the gay capital of the north for the best part of two decades. It had the Flamingo, Funny Girls, the Flying Handbag, dozens of gay-run guest houses and a steady stream of visitors from across the country. What it did not have was a Pride. Manchester's had been running for years, and plenty of Blackpool people made the trip down the M55 and M6 for it. The feeling grew that the resort deserved its own.

2006: the first Pride

The first Blackpool Pride took place in May 2006. Its founder was Mark Seargent, and it had help from people inside the town hall. Among them was Catherine Mugonyi, then working as Blackpool Council's equalities adviser, who went on to coordinate the parade for almost a decade.

It was a homespun affair by today's standards, and all the better for it. The Lord and Lady Mayoress led the parade along the seafront. Behind them came a team of gay and lesbian bikers, a local line-dancing group and flatbed lorries, travelling along the Promenade to a town-centre car park. There, the Cheeky Girls performed next to a wrestling ring borrowed from the Trades hotel, and Hazell Dean and Hannah Jones joined them on the bill. There were stalls, a wrestling contest and, on the Sunday evening, a mass blessing. Most of the town's gay venues joined in, including Basil Newby's team from Funny Girls and the Flamingo.

The early Prides also produced one of the festival's most treasured stories: the first Pride flag to fly from the top of Blackpool Tower. The flag later needed repairs, and it reportedly blew up Catherine Mugonyi's sewing machine in the process.

Finding its feet, 2007 to 2012

The second Pride followed in 2007, and by the third, in May 2008, more than 8,000 people were coming. More than 200 marched in the Saturday parade along the Prom, with floats, mermaids and people dressed as penguins, and the Pop Idol winner Michelle McManus was on the bill. That year saw the first dedicated women's area, which was packed. The founder was candid about the challenge: Blackpool was, he reckoned, about fifteen years behind Manchester, but if it could add a couple of thousand people a year it would get there. He even talked about one day bidding for EuroPride.

In these early years Pride settled into a pattern that would last for more than a decade: a parade along the seafront, then a festival inside the Winter Gardens, with the Empress Ballroom as its showpiece.

2013 to 2017: the Winter Gardens years

• 2013: Town-centre works led to a ban on vehicles in the parade. The same year the first exhibition of queer artists at Pride, We're Here..., was staged at the Winter Gardens. It was the first collaboration between the artists who would later found the We're Still Here! heritage project.
• 2014: The vehicle ban was lifted, and in June the organisers registered Blackpool Pride Festival as a charity, with the aim of promoting equality and diversity through an annual festival for Blackpool, Wyre and Fylde.
• 2015: The tenth Pride, in June, drew what Lancashire's police and crime commissioner called the best turnout yet. The parade set off at 11am, the party moved on to the Winter Gardens, and Jedward, Jake Quickenden and Black Lace were on the bill, with a special appearance from the Krankies.
• 2016: Ten years on from the first, Pride was launched with a glitzy party at Viva and held on 11 and 12 June across the Winter Gardens and St John's Square, with five stages. The Mayor opened it, the parade marched through the rain, and the programme had dedicated women's, youth, family and trans sessions. Bars across town, from Ma Kelly's to Pepe's, backed the event.
• 2017: Heavy rain again, but a packed Empress Ballroom, with Sonia and Union J on the main stage. Police officers marched in the parade, and big employers sent dozens of staff to walk with them.

2018: walking out of the Winter Gardens

In February 2018 Pride made the biggest decision in its history. The Winter Gardens had agreed to host the Lancashire Festival of Hope that September, with the American evangelist Franklin Graham as the headline speaker. Graham had a long record of anti-gay remarks. Pride's coordinator, Callum Gillies, said the organisers could not put money into a venue that would host his event only weeks later, and they cancelled their two-day booking.

The 2018 festival went ahead instead on Princess Parade, near the Metropole Hotel, on 9 and 10 June. Nearly 5,000 people came, and police said there were fewer incidents than at any previous Blackpool Pride. When Graham arrived in September, up to 200 people rallied outside the Winter Gardens with rainbow flags, and several local churches, including Liberty Church, held an inclusive Rainbow Weekend of services at the same time.

2019: Pride beside the seaside

With the council's encouragement, Pride moved to the Tower Festival Headland by the Comedy Carpet in 2019, under the theme "Pride beside the seaside". The organisers had worried about moving away from the gay venues, but the bars and police backed the change. The line-up included CeCe Peniston, Claire Richards of Steps, Chesney Hawkes and Blackpool's own Betty Legs Diamond, and the weekend spilled over into Queen Street, with events at the Flamingo, the Flying Handbag and Kaos. Bad weather hit ticket sales, though, and the council had to lend the festival £68,000.

2020 to 2022: lockdown and Winter Pride

Covid cancelled the 2020 and 2021 festivals, and Pride moved online. To fill the gap, the organisers announced a one-off Winter Pride in the Winter Gardens for November 2021. The outdoor festival returned in 2022, and another Winter Pride in the Empress Ballroom, with Sonique, Toploader, Ultra Naté and Freemasons, was announced for February 2023.

2023 to 2025: growing again

Pride now runs as Blackpool, Wyre & Fylde Pride, reflecting the whole Fylde coast. In 2024 the parade set off from outside Sandcastle Waterpark at 11am and headed to Princess Parade, with the Cheeky Girls and Natasha Hamilton headlining the Saturday and a Sunday line-up of Drag Race stars including Baga Chipz. Sherlock's, the Flying Handbag, Peek-a-Booze and Garlands all sponsored the after-parties.

In 2025 the festival returned to the Tower Headland for three days. A Friday 90s dance party brought Ian Van Dahl, Livin' Joy, Baby D and Rowetta, the Saturday parade was led by former Funny Girls star DJ Zoe, and Remember Monday, Lucie Jones and Liberty X topped the bill. The chair, Sara Cheston, said £120,000 had been invested, all of it organised by volunteers. The same weekend the documentary Queering Blackpool premiered at the Backlot Cinema.

2026: the twentieth anniversary

Pride's twentieth birthday ran from 5 to 7 June 2026 under the community-chosen theme "One Love, One Pride". Heather Small headlined, in what organisers called the biggest booking in the festival's history, with 911 celebrating thirty years and the Cheeky Girls returning twenty years after topping the bill at the first Pride. Betty Legs Diamond performed, one lucky couple got married on the Sunday stage, and Youth Pride ran alongside the main event.

The anniversary also brought something new: the first Rainbow Quarter Street Party, organised by the Blackpool Rainbow Alliance with more than twenty local businesses. It stretched along Lord Street from Springfield Road to Cocker Street, was opened by Su Pollard and drew around 3,000 people over two days. For the first time in years, Pride week felt as if it belonged to the gay quarter as much as to the Prom.

Pride's twenty years in people's memories

A month after the anniversary, the We're Still Here! History Club met at Aunty Social on Topping Street for an evening on twenty years of Blackpool Pride. Catherine Mugonyi shared her personal archive of photographs, stories and ephemera from the early Prides, and everyone who had been to a Pride was invited to bring photos, outfits and memories. The material will feed into two exhibitions at the Grundy Art Gallery and Showtown planned for 2027. If you have Pride memories to share, see our guide to heritage projects and archives.

Get involved

Pride is still run by volunteers. You can march, volunteer, run a stall or support the February Rainbow Weekend fundraisers in the quarter's bars. Dates for future festivals are announced in the spring, and details can change, so check before you plan your trip.