{"id":893657,"date":"2026-04-14T15:07:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T15:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/893657\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T15:07:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T15:07:15","slug":"birmingham-pride-boss-plans-to-make-it-completely-free-by-2027","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/893657\/","title":{"rendered":"Birmingham Pride boss plans to make it completely free by 2027"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                <img width=\"792\" height=\"416\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/birmingham-pride-2022.jpg\" class=\"attachment-featured-image size-featured-image wp-post-image\" alt=\"Birmingham Pride parade in 2022\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"  \/>\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\">Birmingham Pride parade in 2022 (Getty Images for the Birmingham 2022 Festival)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thepinknews.com\/topic\/birmingham\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Birmingham<\/a> Pride boss Lawrence Barton has announced his goal of making the city\u2019s annual celebration completely free to attend by next year.<\/p>\n<p>Barton has been the director of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thepinknews.com\/topic\/birmingham-pride\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Birmingham Pride<\/a> since 2009, but has revealed he intends to leave after the 30th anniversary comes in 2027.<\/p>\n<p>This year, the Pride festival has had prices cut significantly to make it more accessible due to concerns surrounding the cost of living crisis.<\/p>\n<p>The parade itself is free to attend, but it is followed by a two-day event for which attendees must buy a ticket.<\/p>\n<p>However Barton has told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.birminghammail.co.uk\/whats-on\/whats-on-news\/birmingham-pride-boss-reveals-resignation-33748501\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">BirminghamLive<\/a> that he intends to make it completely free for its special 30th anniversary in 2027.<\/p>\n<p>He said: \u201cIn 1997 I attended the first Birmingham Pride, 2027 will be the 30th anniversary. I\u2019d love to bring it full circle. In my own mind, I\u2019d love for it to be a free festival.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The event was free to attend in the past, however organisers found the need to balance costs for security, cleaning and talent.<\/p>\n<p>But Barton says it is possible to make it free, and he will resign once he does it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI feel like once that\u2019s done, I think it\u2019ll be my time to then say, we brought it full circle and I will need to pass the baton on,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Birmingham Pride 2026 line-up<\/p>\n<p>This year\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/birminghampride.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Birmingham Pride<\/a> is taking place on Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 May.<\/p>\n<p>Performers on the Saturday include Katy B, Sigala and Drag Race UK winner Danny Beard.<\/p>\n<p>On the Sunday, Girls Aloud icon Nadine Coyle headlines, while Bj\u00f6rn Again, Boney M and Amelle of Sugababes fame will perform.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Share your thoughts!<\/strong>\u00a0Let us know in the comments below, and remember to keep the conversation respectful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Birmingham Pride parade in 2022 (Getty Images for the Birmingham 2022 Festival) Birmingham Pride boss Lawrence Barton has&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":893658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,56537,748,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-893657","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-birmingham-pride","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116403690203251678","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=893657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/893658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=893657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=893657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=893657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}