Liverpool Pride celebrations cancelled for 2025

LCR Pride Foundation, the organisation behind Pride in Liverpool and the city’s annual March with Pride, has regretfully announced that the 2025 event, due to take place on Saturday, 26 July, will not go ahead.

In a statement, LCR Pride Foundation’s Board of Directors said:

“It is with great sadness that we announce the cancellation of this year’s Pride in Liverpool and March with Pride.

“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.

“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.

“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.”

Pride in Liverpool March - The Guide Liverpool — Credit: The Guide Liverpool

Councillor Harry Doyle, Liverpool City Council’s Cabinet member for Health, Wellbeing and Culture, said:

“It’s hugely disappointing that LCR Pride Foundation are having to cancel Pride in Liverpool and March with Pride, especially given the success of last year’s event and how important it has become for our LGBTQ+ community.

“It’s absence this year will be keenly felt, particularly given the ever-growing need to support our community and promote unity. I know it’s a decision that LCR Pride Foundation has tried valiantly to avoid. However, given the difficult circumstances they find themselves in it’s also understandable and from a long-term point of view, it’s the right decision for them.

“The Council has had discussions with the Foundation over the last few weeks, and we will continue to assist them to ensure our community can once again march with pride in 2026.”

Any march registration fees paid for 2025 will be refunded and invoices will not be raised for those organisations who had registered to march.