ANNOUNCEMENT REGARDING BIDEFORD PRIDE 2026

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It is with a heavy heart that we at Bideford Pride CIC have taken the decision to cancel our plan to hold a Pride event here in Bideford this year.

Bideford Pride in its current form, was held for the first time in 2024, with a starting budget of £10! What we did have though, was the dedicated time from a role funded by The National Lottery, hosted by Sunrise Diversity, along with a group of passionate, committed volunteers who had capacity to make the event happen!

In 2025 we came back with all the learning from the year before, as well as the continued support of our sponsors and our community. We have been really proud of both events, and its been absolute pleasure to receive excellent feedback, and know how much these events have supported the community, and the impact of our efforts.

Bideford Pride became a CIC in 2025, and our hope is to hold an annual event, as well as build on the support offered to the LGBTQ+ community in Torridge, and across northern Devon. In order to do this, we need a robust team with the capacity to fulfil our objectives, and this year we just don’t have this. The role hosted by Sunrise has come to an end, our volunteer Directors are stretched beyond capacity with their other commitments, and in some cases struggling with ill health.

We have not taken the decision to cancel lightly, we want to make sure that each of our events is even better than the last, and we wont risk over promising, and underdelivering to you, our community, our friends.

But this is not the end!! We hope to be back next year, with more support, more funding, and with your help Bideford Pride 2027 could really be something special!

We would love to hear from anyone in the community that would like to let us know what Bideford Pride has meant to you, and how it can be even better next year. We would love to hear from anyone who is able to offer the event any support at all, from volunteering time and expertise, to support with sponsorship or funding.

Do you have a strong view on this event not going ahead? Tell us! We would love to hear from you at Bidefordpride@gmail.com

We will all be looking forward to attending the first Appledore Pride 2026 and very much look forward to seeing you there!