Birmingham Pride postponed to autumn due to coronavirus crisis

The UK’s biggest LGBT festival has postponed its event into the autumn as coronavirus sweeps across the country.

Birmingham Pride has announced it will not take place as planned on May 23rd and 24th.

In a statement on Instagram, Birmingham Pride confirmed the event will be pushed back later this year to a new date of Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th September. 

The event will showcase a ‘brand new space’ for pride celebrations to take place, with organisers claiming it will give all of Birmingham ‘something to look forward to.’

“Birmingham Pride is important to us all and the fantastic charities that we support. We are currently negotiating with all artists from this year’s line up to appear in September and we are still very much excited to present what will be the biggest and best Birmingham Pride to date,” the statement read.

Tickets purchased for the May event will automatically be transferred to the new dates.

Alternatively, tickets for the festival can be donated to Pride charities by users logging into their TicketSellers account.

“We very much hope that the situation in the UK will have improved enormously later into the summer months, so that we can go ahead with one of the most important dates in the LGBTQ calendar.

“Let’s all come together later in 2020 and in the meantime, stay safe, look after each other and remember, we are ‘Stronger Together’,” it added.

The postponement of the festival will put pressure on other Prides across the UK to reconsider their proposed dates. 

London Pride have postponed all events  due to take place on Saturday 27th June 2020, with a new date to be announced in due course.

In the UK, 6,650 people have tested positive for Covid-19, while 335 people have died of the respiratory illness.

Last week, the government said it was investigating a rise in Covid-19 deaths in the West Midlands, while Birmingham MP Khalid Mahmood suggested religious convictions and fears of social isolation were linked to the increase.