The festival was originally cancelled for a number of reasons

14:38, 01 Jul 2025Updated 14:38, 01 Jul 2025

The 2024 Liverpool Pride march makes its way through the city centre this afternoonThe 2024 Liverpool Pride march makes its way through the city centre this afternoon(Image: Liverpool Echo)

Liverpool’s Pride festival 2025 is back on, with the promise of being “louder, prouder and truly ours”. The city-wide event and march was initially cancelled for the year, with the organisers citing “significant financial and organisational challenges”.

The organisers said they “listened to the community” and took the decision to cut ties with sponsors Barclays, which created further issues with staging the annual event. LCR Pride Foundation, the organisation behind Pride in Liverpool and the city’s annual March with Pride, then “regretfully” announced that the Saturday, July 26, would not go ahead in a lengthy statement shared with the ECHO.

However, today, Tuesday, July 1, Sahir House, the city’s oldest LGBTQ+ charity, has announced it has managed to “turn things around”. The group said: “We can’t wait to show you want’s coming. From an exciting new march route to a queer arena celebration not to be missed”.

The charity also said this year will include activities for young people and families, a Pride Quarter party and “so much more”. It ended the announcement with the promise that “This Pride is for everyone”. The ECHO will be bringing you all the details about the new event as and when they are available.

The 2024 Liverpool Pride march makes its way through the city centreThe 2024 Liverpool Pride march

LCR Pride Foundation’s Board of Directors previously said it was struggling because of being “an almost entirely volunteer-led operation.” This, coupled with significant financial and organisational challenges, led to the cancellation of the Pride celebrations the city has grown to know and love over the last handful of years.

The initial statement said: “In recent months, the charity has faced significant financial and organisational challenges, which have impacted timescales and resulted in it reverting to an almost entirely volunteer-led operation.

“This, combined with rising costs and difficulty securing national and local funding, has made it impossible to bring Pride in Liverpool to the city this year.

The 2024 Liverpool Pride march had thousands in attendanceThe 2024 Liverpool Pride march had thousands in attendance

“Having listened to our community, we also recently took the decision to sever our relationship with Barclays, which created further delays to planning. While we are confident that this was the right decision, it is one that has had a substantial impact at an already challenging time.

“Our small team had been working closely with key partners and some fantastic city-based sponsors right up until the end of May to try to ensure the march went ahead, but despite all best efforts we were unable to make it feasible.

“We are devastated that we will not be able to march together this year, at a time when coming together to stand in solidarity, protest and celebration is needed more than ever, and we understand how difficult this will be for our community.

The Liverpool Pride march attracts people from all over the country each yearThe Liverpool Pride march attracts people from all over the country each year

“However, we strongly believe that it is the right decision to ensure both the continuation of the organisation and to enable the return of Pride in Liverpool and our march in 2026. On that front, discussions with Liverpool City Council and a number of city-based sponsors are already underway.

“We believe that our beautiful, resilient city region deserves a consistent, safe and community-led pride celebration each and every year, and our priority now is to ensure that we have a sustainable foundation to secure that, through working with our community, and with partners, funders and sponsors that align with our values.

“We will work to promote other events and activities taking place over Pride weekend, and we will also be supporting our fantastic regional Prides, who have a summer of celebration planned across the boroughs.

“We are also actively exploring other ways to bring the community together later in the year and recruiting new trustees to support our organisational mission to make the Liverpool City Region the most LGBTQ+ friendly in the UK.

“We thank our city partners and our community for their patience and support at this challenging time, and we look forward to marching together again next summer.”