Nottingham Pride 2023: Binks Yard to host new evening event
Nottingham is set to have one of it’s biggest Pride celebrations yet as new venues join the line up of events for Saturday, July 29
When it comes to the biggest celebrations in the city, Nottingham Pride is up there as one of the best events on the calendar. This year, Nottingham’s LGBT+ community will have an array of new events which are being run after the traditional Pride celebrations in Hockley on Saturday, July 29.
The idea is to create even more evening options with a variety of performers and make Pride a city-wide celebration. Last year saw thousands of queer-community members take to the streets to celebrate. The city will have several events taking place that include The New Forresters, Lord Roberts and Secret Garden.
Saul Morgan is the organiser of the Pride celebrations at Binks Yard in the Island Quarter. This will be a separate evening event, titled, Groovebox presents Nottingham Pride Festival, which is the first Pride celebration for the newly opened bar and restaurant which is hoping to become a huge entertainment space in the city.
“I came back from Sydney where I was working on the World Pride team for a month and I saw things on a scale we had never seen before. The way the city lends itself to a pride event not only with parties but with the infrastructure, public transport, and shops. They closed the Harbour Bridge and 60,000 people walked across it,” Saul explained.
“I love Pride and it’s great what the team has done here but we wanted to make it bigger and make us a bit of a headline. We got a team and some ideas together. As a new venue, Binks Yard brought me in separately to talk about how they could make it a venue for the community all year round - not just Pride.”
He added: “This will hopefully be the first of many events that we are going to do down there to bring big names to Nottingham. We are potentially looking at drag brunches and promoters from big shows interested in using Binks Yard to showcase their performers. The options are exciting moving forward.
Saul has experience in organising large events as he works with Groovebox which holds large festivals in Colwick Park each year. There is a full lineup of things to do at the new Pride evening event.
“We will be starting at 2 pm and then finishing at 10 pm with the first part of the afternoon featuring drag cabaret. We have some local queens coming in as well as (Drag Race legend) Tayce, Sminty Drop and Danny Beard. They will be coming down to showcase their different styles of drag which is doing to be exciting,” Saul said.
“After that, we will head straight into a party with some of our local DJs from Groovebox. We have Horse Meat Disco headlining along with Todd Terry. It’s a random lineup but one I am quite excited about.”
The team organising the event are keen to stress they do not want to take away from Nottingham’s historic Pride celebrations which take place during the day in Hockley but add to it with a carnival of colour at another location.
“We want to make the whole weekend a celebration of Pride across the city. The parade that is organised is amazing and I go every year. We are keen to not take away from that but we want to add to it and offer a choice of lineups for people to go and enjoy.”
The Pride march will take place in the city centre starting, as is tradition, by Lister Gate before travelling up to Broad Street where it comes to a stop amid stalls, stages and a show. Last year was one of the largest events the celebration has ever seen and the first return to full celebrations since Covid.
Tickets for the event have gone on sale with several different packages available including a VIP option ranging from £29.95 to £51.95. The early bird releases have already sold but new tickets are being released consistently ranging from £27.75 to £44.25.