Swansea Pride is the annual

South West Wales South West Wales is one of the regions of Wales consisting of the unitary authorities of Swansea, Neath Port Talbot, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire. This definition is used by a number of government agencies and private organisations includin ...

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term ...

festival which is held in Swansea,

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

History

Swansea Pride was founded in 2008 by group of local

people who wanted to bring an outdoor Pride event to. The organisers included the people behind local social media website, Gayswansea.com. The initial committee was comprised entirely by volunteers, with no previous professional event organising experience. Pink in the Park, the first event, took place on the Lacrosse Field,

Singleton Park Singleton Park ( cy, Parc Singleton) is the largest urban park in the city of Swansea. It is located in Sketty. The park comprises 250 acres of land. An ornamental garden is located to the south, near the entrance to Swansea University, and a w ...

on 28 June 2009. The event was, in spite of doubts and trepidation, a resounding success, where

Kelly Llorenna Kelly Llorenna (born 1975) is an English dance music singer, who was born in Slough, Berkshire and raised in Oldham, Greater Manchester. She is best known as the former lead vocalist for the dance group N-Trance in the 1990s. Their biggest hit ...

Scooch Scooch is a British pop group, comprising performers Natalie Powers, Caroline Barnes, David Ducasse and Russ Spencer. Scooch represented the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 in Helsinki with their song " Flying the Flag (Fo ...

, and local entertainers entertained the crowd. The festival was also used as a way to raise money and awareness for the

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immune ...

and AIDS charity,

Terrence Higgins Trust Terrence Higgins Trust is a British charity that campaigns about and provides services relating to HIV and sexual health. In particular, the charity aims to end the transmission of HIV in the UK; to support and empower people living with HIV, to ...

. Emboldened by their success, and following the second Swansea Pride event in 2010, the events volunteers decided to constitute as a registered charity. The decision to become a charity was made to publicly demonstrate that Swansea Pride is a not-for-profit event run by volunteers for the benefit of the local LGBT community, their friends and families. In 2013 the charity changed its name to Spectrum South West Wales while keeping the name Swansea Pride exclusively for the event. The reason for the name change was to allow the charity to undertake other events and activities for and on behalf of the local LGBT community. The seventh annual event, Swansea Pride 2015, was cancelled on 14 April 2015. Financial difficulties and a lack of volunteers were cited as the reasons the event was cancelled. On Friday 19 June 2015 a public meeting was held at the charity's office where a public vote decided to start planning and preparation for a Swansea Pride event in 2016. A new contingent of volunteers were recruited to the event Organising Committee & its constituent sub-committees. Historically, the event was held on the last Saturday in June each year. However, since the relaunch of London Pride the decision was made to move to another date. The date for the 2016 event was scheduled to be 30 April 2016. However the event did not happen. On Saturday 5 May 2018, Swansea Pride returned at the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea for their first spring pride. Hundreds of people took part in the march and watched live performances. In 2023 the event had to be moved from the National Waterfront Museum to the Guildhall. This was due to weeks of heavy rain causing the Museum Park grass to become unstable and muddy.

References

External links

Swansea Pride official website

Swansea Pride Facebook page

Swansea Pride Twitter
{{Pride parades Mass media and culture in Swansea LGBT organisations in Wales Annual events in Wales Pride parades in Wales 2008 in LGBT history

History

See also

References

External links