Birmingham Pride confirms new 2021 dates as UK’s Pride season plots triumphant return
Birmingham Pride 2017 parade. (Jim Wood / Barcroft Media via Getty Images / Barcroft Media via Getty Images)
Birmingham Pride became one of England’s first major Pride events to confirm its 2021 parade is back on and will be held in the Autumn.
England’s 2020 Pride calendar suffered blow after blow due to the rampaging coronavirus, forcing organisers to go digital or cancel altogether, often wearily postponing to the following year.
But in the wake of prime minister Boris Johnson’s roadmap to easing lockdown, some LGBT+ Pride organisers have already begun optimistically encouraging their followers to “watch this space“. Pride, they suggest, might be back on.
And among the first to revive the embattled Pride scene is Birmingham Pride, which has been hosted in the city’s LGBT+ district for decades.
When will Birmingham Pride 2021 be this year?
In a statement posted to social media Wednesday morning (24 February), organisers said the revised dates for the event will be 25 and 26 September.
“After a hugely challenging and distressing year for us all, and following the latest government information on the ending of lockdown resrrictions, detailing that restrictions on ALL large scale events will end 21 June, we are delighted to announce Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 September as the new dates for this year’s Birmingham Pride!”
🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️NEW DATES 🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈
This years @BirminghamPride supported by @HSBC_UK will be held on Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th September 2021.
Information below. We can’t wait to see you ♥️ pic.twitter.com/QYIpnHMyBu
— Birmingham Pride (@BirminghamPride) February 24, 2021
“We firmly believe that delaying until later in September gives us the most realistic opportunity to finally deliver a safe and enjoyable Pride for us all.”
The statement explained that those with tickets to the postponed 2020 Pride “do not need to do anything” and will be rolled forward to this year’s event. Those looking for a refund are free to do so. And a full line-up will be announced “soon”.
Tickets, they added, are available to purchase here.
While the likelihood of the Pride parades and parties, among other large-scale and indoor events, being how they were pre-COVID-19 remains slim, scientists have suggested, it’s nevertheless a drastically different scene from the previous year.
From Pride in London to Brighton and Hove Pride, organisers made “difficult” and “regretful” decisions to postpone their parades.
Nervous, many said, of how large-scale events and indoor social functions would put vulnerable people at risk of contracting coronavirus.
Birmingham Pride was forced to postpone its 2020 Pride twice due to the ever-changing coronavirus pandemic.
