Bolton Pride

Bolton Pride is an annual Pride event celebrating LGBTQIA+ life in Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, and was first held in 2015. The event includes a parade through the town and live music in the town centre.

History

The first Bolton Pride was founded in 2015 by James Edgington and Liz Pycroft. The creation of the event was partly a reaction to the release of statistics in early 2015 which showed that hate crime against LGBT people in Bolton had increased 135% in the previous year. The aim was to encourage Bolton to become more LGBT friendly and used the slogan "Love Bolton, hate homophobia". Ian McKellen was guest of honour at the first Bolton Pride, which was held in October.

For Bolton Pride's second year a parade was introduced and continued the ‘Love Bolton, hate homophobia’ theme. It took place from 23 to 25 September 2016 and included a candle-lit vigil to commemorate victims of hate crime.

Bolton Pride 2017 was held on the weekend of 30 September and 1 October. It featured a candlelit vigil, an LGBT film night, and live music. The parade featured around 500 people with floats.
Bolton Pride 2018 took place on 21–23 September. It consisted of a vigil, stalls in the market and Victoria Square, and a parade themed around The Greatest Showman and finishing in Victoria Square,

Bolton Pride 2019 was held over three days from 20 September to 22 September. The event was organised by volunteers from across Bolton and the surrounding areas. The festival weekend began on Friday 20 September 2019 with a Bolton FM street party in the afternoon with the Town Hall being highlighted in the colours of the rainbow flag in the evening. On Saturday 21 September 2019, there was a parade from Queen’s Park to Victoria Square where there was live entertainment in Victoria Square until early evening with evening events at local venues – The Alma Inn and The Venue. On the final day, Sunday 22 September 2019, there was a Family Fun Day with activities, entertainment, and, stalls from local charities, community groups and businesses in Victoria Square and the Market Place.

The event was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It returned in person in August 2022.

Financial Difficulty

In spring of 2022 Edgington, one of the co-founders, stepped down and appointed Kevin Wright as the event's new director. James Edington was prosecuted for fraud in connection to the event between 2019 and 2021, his motivation was to keep the event afloat after it went into financial difficulty. In 2022 he was sentenced at Bolton Magistrates, he received a 10 month sentence suspended for 12 months plus 200 hours of unpaid work with 20 rehabilitation activity requirement days. He was also ordered to pay £16,539 in compensation to the local authority.

The event became a slimmed down version by 2024, with the event cut to two days and with restricted hours. Bolton Council had not increased funding to assist the event that year but by 2025 provided £75,00 to Bolton Pride which has met with opposition from various political parties including Conservative, Horwich and Blackrod First and Communities First and their councillors in addition to opposition from Reform UK.

Despite its initial difficulties and hurdles Bolton Pride, a free event, has become a valued and prosperous community event, breathing life into the town square that is well attended and provides opportunity for Bolton to show its broad cultural acceptance, "Bolton is proud, united, and here for everyone."

Awards

Each year, Bolton Pride holds the Diversity Awards to recognise work supporting the LGBT community in Bolton.

in 2017, Bolton Pride won the Tell MAMA Award at the #No2H8 Crime Awards for their role in dealing with hate crime.

References

External links

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Bolton Pride Wins the Tell MAMA Hate Crime Award at the No2H8 Crime Awards – 2017
via YouTube

{{Pride parades

Pride parades in England
LGBTQ organisations in England
Summer in England
Bolton
LGBTQ culture in England