Wakefield Pride’s constitution was infamously written on the back of a beer mat on a dark winters’ afternoon in the front lounge of the Rainbow Pub in Lower Warrengate in 2005. Members of our local collective gathered to chat about the need to give a voice to those within our community – we wanted to hold an event to give our community a voice.

We did and here is how we did it……

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The LGBT youth group Fruitbowl sort to organise a Pride event in Wakefield.

Yorkshire’s Queer Magazine SHOUT asked for volunteers to meet at the MESMAC offices in January 2005 and a committee was formed and developed in conjunction with multiple agencies. Wakefield Council, NHS Primary Care Trusts, West Yorkshire Police Authority, hosts of two local gay venues in the city, VOX, the Men’s Sexual Health Project (MESMAC) and members of the gay community formed a collective.

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These allies came together, we met and organised a programme of activity for what would be the first Pride in Wakefield. It became the elusive beermat proposition, sadly lost to the annals of time, what we’d give to have this founding document!

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The working group established a formal constitution and elected members with the aim of running a Pride event every year. We had established in 2005.

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Our group decided to organise a Pride Parade throughout our City of Wakefield and put on an afternoon of entertainment with free and open access to the public. We wanted to be proud of who we are. Our principal aim being to celebrate the diverse cultures and the lifestyles within our communities of Wakefield, to challenge the stereotypes, break down barriers and build bridges within our city.

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Our initial event in 2005 was a massive success, we had approximately 2000 attendees with about a 1000 of us walking a march through our city centre.

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We’ve had many different members, different committees, different names, but ultimately we have had the same cause – to be Proud of who we are.

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Attendance has risen and continues to grow, as such we’re bigger than an annual Festival now.

Wakefield Pride was awarded the prestigious Duke of York Award. This award encouraged the enhancement of community spirit throughout Yorkshire. It recognised excellence and acknowledged the outstanding local community schemes that we were doing, we had started to achieve our goal.

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Wakefield Pride has built on all this early success, got bigger and better each year.

Wakefield Pride registered with the Charity Commission in January 2020 (RC 1188056), then the Pandemic hit and our usual events were placed on hold.

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We never wavered from our responsibilities to be a loud and Proud voice in our city, we stood steadfast and supported those in most need, we supported our community.

We doubled our effort to support those in need, our social media is testament to the support we have given and give.

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We’ve emerged from the Pandemic and look forward to once again meeting to march, celebrate ourselves and meet for our main festival on the second Sunday in August each year.

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Wakefield Pride – Proud to be supporting our communities since 2005.

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