- Restaurant review: Tom Brown at The Capital, London - 1 July, 2026
- Review: The Good Front Room – Dalston, London - 17 March, 2026
- A year in Normandie and Some Other Thoughts about Painting – David Hockney at Serpentine, London - 11 March, 2026
A lot has happened in the landscape of Pride events this year from Manchester Pride collapsing to a focus on trans rights in response to new UK laws. We’ve collated the headlines below.
Financial challenges
According to a questionnaire by the UK Pride Organisers Network (UKPON) More than 85 Pride organisations have noted a reduction in corporate sponsorships, with UK Black Pride reporting over 60% of its sponsorships have disappeared from Pride events. This lead to some pride events, such as that of Liverpool City Region Pride being cancelled because of funding issues.
Manchester Pride collapse
One of the biggest shocks was the voluntary liquidation of the charity behind Manchester Pride, which left many creatives and performers working for the event unpaid – we covered what’s next for these creatives last month. Looking forward it has been reported that Manchester City Council has stepped in to offer support, so a pride event in Manchester may take place in 2026, albeit at a different scale and format.
Activism and Social Change
The theme for many Pride events in 2025 was Activism and Social Change reflecting the ongoing first for LGBTQ+ equality. This was heightened by the UK Supreme Court ruling in 2025 in the updated definition of ‘sex’ in the Equality Act 2010, which caused particular urgency to London Trans+ Pride
Celebrations
There were lots of celebration this year, including:
- Pride in London having over a million attendees and about 30,000 participants.
- Portsmouth hosting the official UK Pride 2025 event in June – a large, free, volunteer-run festival
- UK Black Pride celebrated its 20th anniversary in August
- Pride in Hull and Cornwall Pride was honoured with the Kings Award for Voluntary Service 2025
What’s next for Pride in 2026
While the theme for UK Pride events for 2026 hasn’t yet been set, the 22nd LGBT+ History Month (February 2026) will focus on Science & Innovation as its theme, exploring how LGBT+ figures have been an a part of improvements to our daily lives in healthcare, climate change, clean energy.
In the summer of 2025, the UK government released changes to relationships and sex education guidance for England and Wales, significantly weakening schools’ responsibilities to provide equal and fair education about transgender people – the remit is to teach about biological sex only, not gender identity in the classroom. We may well see a response to this through Pride events as a protest next year.
Human rights organisations who condemned the UK Supreme Court Ruling in April this year on the definition of ‘sex’ in the Equality Act 2010 have warned we could see an increase in discrimination against trans people and exclusion of trans and non-binary people in single sex spaces. We could therefore see continued moment through Pride events in 2026 to promote trans inclusion.
Whilst the future remains uncertain about the funding for Pride events, their original intent remains clear – Pride is a protest for the inequalities we have still to solve and a celebration of what we have achieved to date. Pride events provide many other educational and community benefits too, including remembrance moments and opportunities to reflect on LGBT history.
