Town to celebrate first ever Pride festival after parade cancelled

ONE of Somerset’s major towns will be celebrating its first ever Pride event next weekend.

Despite having to scale the celebration back, Taunton Pride will be going ahead as planned on Saturday, July 17.

The one-day festival will take place across various venues in Taunton, including live music on several different stages across the town centre.

An announcement was made last month by organisers that said: “We are delighted to confirm that our festival day will go ahead on Saturday, July 17. It will still be free, but will be a smaller, ticketed, Covid-compliant event; a mix of live and online from Goodland Gardens, The Brewhouse Theatre, CICCIC and Mambo.”

Initially, a Pride Parade was scheduled to take place throughout the town centre, but with the lifting of coronavirus restrictions pushed back, the parade had to be cancelled. With less than a week to go until the day of the festival, final details are being put together to ensure the day runs as smoothly as possible.

All tickets sold out for the festival within just 24 hours and a statement from the organisers said: “We understand that some people are upset because they haven’t got a ticket.

“To get the go-ahead we had to make it for attendees which meant limiting numbers. We felt it was better to go ahead with this model than to cancel.”

The festival will take place between noon and 5pm in Goodland Gardens, while ticketed shows can be seen at Mambo between noon and 5pm, CICCIC from 1pm until 9pm and The Brewhouse Theatre from noon until 5pm.

An evening show at Mambo will run from 6pm to 11pm.