Festival is to leave Arklow

THE Wicklow Pride Festival won’t take place in Arklow this year.

Dave Thomas, one of the festival organisers, said they have decided not to hold the festival in Arklow this summer.

He said a number of factors lead to their decision but said the straw that broke the camel’s back was an alleged assault on a young boy of nine years of age on Saturday.

‘We decided on Monday not to hold the festival here in Arklow because of a number of reasons. One was the backlash against us from a small group of narrow minded people in Arklow after last year’s festival.

‘ Those people were really quite nasty and engaged in online bullying, targeting Arklow LGBTQ and also me personally. People were writing all sorts of silly things about me online and essentially started a hate campaign against me personally.

‘ This led to people not turning up for events organised during the festival. We had one Emmy award-winning band which flew in from America to perform at the festival and only 12 people turned up despite heavy publicity.

‘While we got sponsorship from Wicklow County Council and Arklow Municipal District, no local businesses would support us and people weren’t interested in hanging the rainbow flag.

‘ There was a complete lack of interest and it was very clear to me that people didn’t want the festival here. They didn’t embrace it at all. Instead of bringing the community together, it proved divisive.

‘It’s a pity we can’t hold it here because it had brought money into the town each year that we staged it but people don’t want it here so we will bring it somewhere else, probably Wicklow or Bray.

‘I heard about a nine-year-old boy being called gay because he had one white lace and one green lace in his shoes. To hear about a child being attacked for this and being called gay, to leave him bleeding, is terrible.’

Dave said in addition to the alleged attack on the young boy someone had left a comment on the Arklow LGBTQ Facebook page last week with the words ‘dirty fa**ots.’