LGBTQ+ festival to return after 40 years

A LGBTQ+ festival last held 40 years ago will take place in Bradford as part of pride month and the city's UK City of Culture celebrations.

Bradford Back in the Pink at Peel Park is inspired by Bradford in the Pink, a short-lived gay festival that last took place in 1985.

The event has been organised by Bradford 2025 and LGBTQ+ events producer Castles in the Sky, founded by creative director Alice Parsons.

Ms Parsons said while the festival was inspired by the original event, it was more of a recognition than a recreation.

"The original festival would happen over a week. So instead we've taken the name Bradford in the Pink and launched this project Back in the Pink, which is a jumping off point for highlighting and celebrating lots of different events and communities from the 1970s onwards," she said.

Ms Parsons said she first heard about the original event while building an archive on Bradford's LGBTQ+ history.

"I met some people who were involved 40 years ago because I'd heard about the festival, mainly through the posters at the Peace Museum in Bradford and at the V&A in London.

"They're particularly beautiful posters, but it didn't seem like anyone knew very much about the events or what had happened."

During her research she met four people who had been at the original event, including Alan Richardson who designed and printed the original posters.

"He's made a new poster for this event that people can screen print on the day and take home as a kind of memento," she said.

"We wanted this day to be a fun, free day for people of any age to come and learn or reminisce or just soak it all in together in a safe and fun environment.

"That includes making space for people to share their stories with younger people or people who are new to the area so that we're all aware of our history and our heritage."

Ms Parsons said her research had brought to light "amazing stories" about Bradford's LGBTQ+ heritage.

"We've been able to hear about the kind of amazing nights out that they had planned.

"People would often have a kind of VHS camera with them, so we've seen some amazing footage," she said.

During her research, Ms Parsons found records of "active gay liberation" in Bradford from 1974, and is planning to build a permanent archive for future generations.

In the 1980s Bradford had a Gay Switchboard and Lesbian Line, which were helplines for the LGBTQ+ community that organised meet ups and events for the community.

Ms Parsons said: "At one point you could go out seven nights a week in Bradford to a different bar or night that was designed to be LGBTQ+ friendly or run by the switchboard or the lesbian line, so that was quite interesting to see.

"It's been fascinating to walk around the city centre and look at these buildings in a different way and think, if it was 1984 there would have been like a gay switchboard fundraiser there every Friday or there would have been a lesbian line disco there every Thursday."

The Peel Park festival takes place between 12:00 and 17:00 BST, with a further three days of activities and events planned for October.

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