Swansea Pride 2024

OUR STORY:

Swansea Pride is a volunteer-led charity that works to promote the elimination of discrimination be it on the grounds of sexual orientation, gender, race, religion or ability.
​
The objects of the Swansea Pride CIO are:

To promote equality and diversity for the public benefit and in particular the elimination of discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity, including in particular but not exclusively by: Raising the awareness of the public with regard to all aspects of discrimination in society and the issues and difficulties affecting the lives or Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) people; Cultivating a sentiment in favour of equality and diversity in particular through celebrating the achievements of LGBTQ people and the diversity of the LGBTQ community; Advancing education and raising awareness of equality and diversity whether by education, interaction with schools, performances or other artistic displays; Producing lectures, media, promotion of public events and exhibitions; Staging and promoting LGBTQ events and in particular an annual LGBTQ festival; Promoting and providing resources where necessary for providing equality of access for members of the LGBT community to sports, training, employment and business where barriers to equal access exist.

FOUNDING AND HISTORY:

In 2008 a group of local LGBT people organised themselves after discussing their mutual ambition to organise an outdoor Pride event in Swansea. The organisers included the people behind local social media website, Gayswansea.com. There were no professional event organisers on the initial committee and the event was put together entirely by volunteers.

Pink in the Park, the first event, took place on the Lacrosse Field, Singleton Park on 28 June 2009. 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. The date for the 2016 event was scheduled to be 30 April 2016. However the event did not happen due to lack of finances.

In 2018 a group of people supported by Swansea Council and National Waterfront Museum came together to plan and deliver a Swansea Spring Pride event which took place on Saturday 5th May 2019 and included the first parade through Swansea City Centre. The event was a success and Swansae Pride returned in 2019 with a larger festival on Museum Green with a number of other events including Swansea Pride Hits the Dancefloor. Swansea Pride successfully became a CIO in 2019.

​Due to the COVID-19 pandemic Swansea Pride did not happen in 2020 or 2021 however it returned in 2022 with the biggest event yet.