Birmingham Pride 2025: Goodbye Smithfield Live
Birmingham Pride 2025 was loud, proud, and packed, but it wasn’t without tension.
For many in the LGBTQ+ community, this year’s event felt like a turning point. With over 75,000 people in attendance, the atmosphere was electric, the parties were huge, and the parade was a spectacle.
But beneath the glitter was unrest.
As attendees filled the city centre and the Smithfield Live arena for the last time, issues around censorship, police involvement, and community representation came to the surface. These concerns are now fuelling calls for a rethink in Pride’s leadership and future direction.
🎤 Friday Night: The Free Community Event
The weekend began with the Big Free Community Event at Smithfield Live, the only fully accessible and unticketed part of the Pride programme.
Local queer talent took to the stage. Drag performers dazzled. A candlelit vigil brought the crowd together in solemn remembrance of those we’ve lost.
It was a powerful, inclusive moment and a reminder of what Pride is supposed to be.
🚓 Saturday: Police March, Protest, and Removal
Saturday’s parade was filled with joy, music, banners, dancers, and resistance. But tensions rose when West Midlands Police officers marched in uniform. Many in the crowd booed, refusing to forget the force’s long history of homophobia and failures in safeguarding queer lives.
The mood turned sharply when Peter Tatchell, veteran human rights activist and LGBTQ+ campaigner, was removed from the parade after calling out the police’s involvement in the death of a queer person in custody.
“Calling on police officers to manhandle and remove a veteran LGBTQ+ activist is abhorrent,” said one attendee. “It’s censorship and it’s a betrayal.”
Tatchell has long challenged West Midlands Police on their past conduct and demanded accountability. That Pride organisers would allow his removal at an event meant to champion protest and visibility has caused deep unease and anger within the community.
But conflicting accounts soon followed.
“When I challenged them, the police said the Pride organisers told them I was not authorised to march in the Pride and had ordered the police to remove me. That is a shocking, false claim,” Tatchell said.
“The Pride CEO, Lawrence Barton, authorised me to march in the parade and never gave the police any instructions to remove me. Mr Barton later told me he was appalled by the police behaviour.”
Pride director Lawrence Barton backed this up:
“Peter was a very special guest today. There’s no way on the planet we would have endorsed the police removing him.”
This mismatch between what police claimed and what organisers later clarified has only deepened mistrust and fuelled the wider debate about who Pride really serves.
🇵🇸 Protest Silenced: Pro-Palestine Voices Blocked
Later in the day, pro-Palestinian LGBTQ+ activists staged a peaceful protest in the Gay Village. Police surrounded the group and blocked them from continuing their route.
The protestors were calling out Birmingham Pride’s sponsorship links to corporations connected with the war in Gaza.
“You can’t wave a rainbow flag with one hand while ignoring genocide with the other,” said one protestor.
This isn’t the first time Pride has faced pinkwashing accusations. But the forceful suppression of dissent has reignited an old debate: who is Pride really for?
🏗️ The End of Smithfield Live
This was the final year of Birmingham Pride at the Smithfield Live site, which is now slated for redevelopment. No clear alternative has been announced.
The proposed new space reportedly holds just 3,000 to 4,000 people, a sharp drop from the 40,000 who filled the Smithfield site this year.
“We’re being told Pride is growing, but the space is shrinking,” said one attendee on Sunday.
Many fear that the shift could lead to a Pride that is more exclusive, more corporate, and less rooted in the queer community.
📊 Pride 2025: By the Numbers
75,000+ parade attendees
8,000+ parade participants (record-breaking)
40,000+ at Smithfield Live
£15 million+ boost to Birmingham’s economy
Final year at Smithfield Live site
Sources: BBC News, Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce, Birmingham Pride
🗣️ Voices from the Community
The mood across the community has been mixed.
Martin Price, a Birmingham-based public service designer, said on BlueSky:
“Pleased to see people enjoying themselves at Pride but also noting those Brummies now finding themselves seeking a change in direction for the event as the Smithfield tenure ends, as well as needing a change in leadership.”
He’s not alone. Across forums, social media, and real-world spaces, many are calling for change , not to cancel Pride, but to reclaim it.
🎭 Fatt Butcher Speaks Out
Popular Birmingham drag performer Fatt Butcher shared a public statement on Instagram explaining why they withdrew from this year’s Pride:
“I have increasingly felt that my values currently do not align with those of Birmingham Pride. The impact of the good work Pride does is lost among the pressures of trying to deliver a large, commercial music festival.”
They criticised Pride’s refusal to respond to concerns from local groups, including Brum Queers for Palestine and laid out a clear vision for how the event could evolve:
Ethical sponsorship that excludes companies linked to war crimes and environmental harm
Formal community stakeholder involvement in decisions
Greater openness, transparency, and accountability
Broader community programming, including families, sober people, and young attendees
Despite the critique, Fatt Butcher said they remain hopeful:
“I have offered to support Birmingham Pride in any way I can… When these changes happen, it will be my intention to return.”
🔥 A Community Demanding Better
In the days following the event, the backlash has been swift and vocal.
The removal of Peter Tatchell. The silencing of protest. The shrinking space. The corporatisation. These aren’t isolated issues, they’re signs of a Pride at a crossroads.
And the community is paying attention.
🧠 Final Word
Pride began as a riot. It wasn’t meant to be safe or easy. It was meant to stand up to injustice.
This year’s Birmingham Pride showed how far we’ve come — and how far we still have to go.
We can celebrate, protest, and demand better all at the same time.
That’s the point of Pride. And we won’t stop pushing for more.
