Pride Comes to the Seaside

Members of the CityFibre LGBT+ network headed to the famous Winter Gardens in Blackpool on Saturday 6^th November. The inaugural Winter Pride, including a Youth Pride area alongside the main event, was the first ‘Live’ pride event in Blackpool since before the pandemic. 

The Pride Team, made up of Julie Richard, Stephen Martin, Carla Cross, Charlotte Hewitt & local City Manager Steve Thorpe put the high winds & torrential rain outside, behind them, and headed inside the doors of this iconic venue.

This willing band of volunteers, threw themselves into the festivities, speaking not only to locals but visitors from all over the UK, who wanted to take the opportunity to celebrate diversity, inclusion, and the freedom to be whomever you want to be, without fear of judgement.

Here are some highlights from both events....

• We parked up the CityFibre Mini complete with rainbow pride stickers outside the venue.
• Stalls in the main Pride & Youth Pride Areas were filled with carefully selected sustainable merchandise, each location covered by members of our team so we could engage with locals and visitors from afar and encourage Pride goers to share their thoughts on what pride meant to them;
• Sponsoring a glitter artist…..because, well, who doesn’t need bling!
• We promoted our full fibre build, the benefits of our gigabit speeds, faster broadband and got several registrations during the afternoon (although this was secondary to spreading the message of Inclusivity).
• We showcased The CityFibre Way, how important diversity and inclusion is within our business plus promoted the fantastic career opportunities at CityFibre 
• Winter Pride attracted around 2,500 people and celebrations included live music, cabaret acts, a rainbow market, and of course our own CityFibre stand

Thanks to all involved in helping to make both events a success – next year’s Summer Pride is set to be bigger and brighter, here’s hoping we can be part of this!