Coming back together to celebrate Yeovil Pride.
As we approached our third year of producing an annual LGBT+ Pride event, we had to continue to work in line with government guidelines. This meant that up until two months before, it was still unclear as to whether we could even proceed with an event this year.
The knock on effects of the coronavirus pandemic have played a huge toll, but we were grateful to get through the necessary hoops to host arguably the most important part of any Pride celebration – the march!
As a more established organisation, we reached out to a number of agencies, developing relationships with them to help facilitate our plans. We presented to the local Safety Advisory Group (made up of the local council departments, police, fire & rescue and ambulance agencies).
Our biggest barrier to overcome this year was rekindling the momentum from our 2019 event which had all but diminished due to the pandemic. However, a smaller team were able to come together to make Yeovil Pride happen and despite forecasted bad weather (plus individual nervousness around the easing of restrictions) an estimated 250-300 people attended our march this year.
One of the key elements was to allow people to make their own placards to carry as we marched, so we hosted a workshop that would also help educate them as to where Pride has come from and therefore why the march is the most important part of any LGBT+ Pride celebration.
Key Points:
Hosted an in-person LGBT+ Pride march, despite many other Prides cancelling entirely, which an estimated 250-300 people attended, and hundreds more saw.
Raised over £1,400 through both a Crowdfunder campaign and on-the-day donation buckets.
Gained media coverage on local and national news outlets including BBC Somerset, BBC Spotlight and Pink News.
This page was last updated on 30 August 2021.