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NEWCASTLE PRIDE IS BACK FOR A CITY-WIDE TAKEOVER THIS SUMMER
- Alex (they/them)
- Jan 30, 2025
- 3 min read
Newcastle Pride is set to return for a city-wide takeover this summer, following the success of last year’s transformative event.
Presented in partnership with Newcastle NE1, the festival, which will take place across the 19th and 20th July, promises an even bigger lineup of celebrations, live entertainment, family activities and access to health and wellbeing support.
Today, Northern Pride, the charity behind the event also announced some big changes which they believe will make this year’s event even better. New venues are on board to amplify the city takeover. First up is the iconic Theatre Royal which will place host to the incredibly popular Family and Youth Zone. Whilst independent theatre, Alphabetti, will support the delivery of a new zone. The Trans+ Zone will provide a safe, celebratory, and empowering area for the region’s trans and non-binary community.
Elsewhere, Northern Pride teases a brilliant lineup yet to be announced, that will take to the Pride Arena Main Stage on Saturday 19th July, whilst a new look to Sunday 20th will see a host of tribute acts and local artists provide the entertainment. Working with Evnt Inspirations and Life Science Centre, a new layout to The Pride Arena will create more space for festival attendees to enjoy with the welcome news that a second stage will play host to the popular Dance and Cabaret zone.
Festival goers won’t need to wait until July for the fun to begin, as Pride Fringe will take place across June and will bring live entertainment, comedy, theatre and new experiences along with networking opportunities across a whole host of city venues. Plus Northern Pride will run its artist commission callout with Creative Central NCL, supported by Curious Arts.
Cllr Karen Kilgour, leader of Newcastle City Council said: “Last year’s celebrations represented a huge milestone for Newcastle, with more people than ever able to experience pride.
“With over 82,000 people engaging with the festival and a positive economic impact of roughly £4m, which benefitted the city, local people, local bars, restaurants and hotels, we are delighted to support the return of Newcastle Pride this summer.
“I look forward to joining in the celebrations and reinforcing our solidarity with the LGBTQIA+ community at a time when we are seeing an abhorrent rise in discrimination, both in this country and across the world.”
Stephen Patterson, Chief Executive at Newcastle NE1, said: “We are thrilled to continue our partnership with Northern Pride to support another city takeover. The move from the Town Moor into the heart of the city was an incredible success last year. Alongside the positive economic impact, it was fantastic to see such crowds enjoying everything Pride has to offer, and we can’t wait to see what’s in store for 2025. This event format creates so many opportunities for local businesses and those in the city to support the festival and benefit from its positive impact and we hope to see many more getting involved this year.”
Ste Dunn, Director of Northern Pride added: “We are delighted to be bringing an even bigger and better Newcastle Pride to the city centre this year to celebrate the LGBTQIA+ community. After such a positive response from our community, supporters and partners, who embraced last year’s festival, we’ve been overwhelmed by the continued support. We are very grateful to be continuing partnerships with Newcastle NE1, Newcastle City Council, Curious Arts and so many more, and can’t wait to continue building on great foundations to deliver another brilliant event together.”
Early Bird tickets for the Pride Arena are on sale with Saturday tickets from £20, Sunday from £7.50 and full weekend tickets from £25. VIP tickets are also available for those looking to upgrade their experience.
Full details of the programme for Newcastle Pride, the Pride Fringe events and much more, head to www.northern-pride.com and follow Northern Pride on socials to stay up to date with all the latest news.
Meet the Artist!
Newcastle Pride 2025 designer
Mack Sproates (they/he) is a queer theatre-maker, artist, facilitator and zine-maker based in Newcastle. Their work is joyful, playful, cut and stick, silly and raw, aiming to help marginalised people’s voices feel seen and heard. They are inspired by DIY punk scenes, pop-culture, music, comic books and are a co-host of Alphabetti’s queer cult comedy cabarets, such as Happy New Queer, JAWS (but gay) and GAYLIEN.
it's great to see the festival expanding with new zones and venues like the theatre royal and alphabetti. the focus on creating a safe and celebratory trans+ zone is particularly important. the economic impact mentioned from last year is impressive, showing how the event benefits the whole city. looking forward to seeing the full lineup announcement for the main stage. AI Image Editor
I’m glad they’re expanding venues instead of trying to cram everything into one spot — it changes the vibe from “queueing all day” to actually exploring the city. Also, a second stage for Dance/Cabaret feels overdue; that area always pulls a big crowd. Mild tangent: planning outfits for Pride weekend always turns into a whole project for me, and StyleLookLab popped into my head because of that. Hope they share set times early so people can actually catch more than one zone.
The Family and Youth Zone being at Theatre Royal is honestly such a nice touch — it makes it feel more accessible (and weather-proof, which is… optimistic in Newcastle). Also glad there’s health and wellbeing support mentioned; that part can get overlooked when everything’s about the headline acts. Total side note, but all the “summer takeover” visuals made me think of this tool where everything looks like a sunny animated backdrop. Anyway, fingers crossed the tribute Sunday doesn’t drown out the local performers.
The partnership stuff is interesting — feels like more city centres are realising Pride isn’t just a parade, it’s a whole economic + community weekend when it’s done well. Two stages should help massively with crowd flow, especially if Dance/Cabaret pulls a big audience. Slight aside: seeing all the zones listed reminded me of this site where everything’s grouped by category too. Hoping they publish a clear map early so you’re not wandering around guessing.
Really interested to see how the Trans+ Zone is programmed — is it more talks/meetups, or a quieter decompression space, or a mix? It’s good to see Pride events getting more thoughtful about what “safe” actually means beyond just security. Off on a nerdy tangent, the “zones” idea made me think of how you compartmentalise stuff when learning basics, like on CaesarCipher where you can test things step by step. Hope the Sunday local artists get a proper spotlight too.