We chat to Ste Dunn about Northern Pride’s Newcastle takeover this month

Northern Pride director Ste Dunn talks to High Life North about the upcoming city-wide takeover in Newcastle, being “unapologetically visible” and the challenges facing the Queer community.

Last year, the stage was set for the annual Northern Pride festival in Newcastle. Over 15,000 people braved the heavy rain to join the march, which then led on to the first day of the celebration at the Town Moor, where many more flocked to the festival.

However, as the rain continued overnight, the organisers had to make the “heartbreaking” decision to cancel the event as the grass site had become “hazardous” and “unsafe.”

The cancellation was devastating for everyone involved, but it also gave the organisers time to reflect.

“It gave us a real opportunity to look at what was important for the event. Why do we do it in the first place? What is the purpose of the event?” Said the director Ste Dunn. “We started to challenge ourselves. As a charity, we want to have the right balance between being a festival, but also a grassroots Pride event.

This is a hard balance to strike, especially in the cost-of-living crisis where people have less disposable income. Therefore, the idea was born to host a city-wide takeover and hold the festival across Newcastle.

The festival returns bigger than ever with marches, stalls and art exhibitions taking place across the city from July 5-21.

Throughout the main weekend, there will also be performances at Newcastle’s Central Park from a diverse range of different acts from Whigfield, Fat Tony, Angie Brown and Ginger Johnson.

The theme of this year’s festival is “unapologetically visible.” This was an incredibly meaningful and thought-provoking theme because the idea of “visibility” can mean different things to different people.

“When we hear the word visibility, we often think in the literal sense of being seen. When visibility in the Queer community can represent so many different things. It’s being able to hold your partner’s hand when walking the street. It is being able to receive your gender recognition certificate and have that moment of joy. It is being able to talk about your family at work or school without fear of persecution,” said Ste.

This idea of visibility will be taken as the key theme for a spectacular march through the city – starting at 12noon on Saturday 20th July, leaving from Newcastle Civic Centre.

Leading up to the event, Northern Pride have commissioned six artworks from various disciplines to interpret “unapologetically visible” in their own way – whether it’s through song, dance, performances, street art or art exhibitions.

“That, to me, is what ‘unapologetically visible’ and Pride in the City is, it’s about empowering and enabling other artists and Queer people to tell their story,” said Ste.

He added: “It gave us an insight into what Queer people want and what they deserve to have from a Pride organiser. This part of our journey isn’t over. We start with six, but there’s so much more storytelling.

After expanding from a grass site venue to a city-wide festival, Northern Pride have been thrilled with how local businesses and the community have supported the event.

“Not only is the city perfect because of the spaces we have – Newcastle has so many different areas to take over and consume with Queer joy and bring alive the community in these pockets,” said Ste. “But also, the businesses coming forward to say, ‘How can we help and be a part of this?’”

One such establishment that has given great support is the newly renovated Assembly Rooms, which will be host to the largest Family and Youth zone Northern Pride has ever seen.’

Sponsored by Morgan Sindall, the Family and Youth zone will create an exciting and unique area where families and young people can go to feel inspired and understood.

Ste added “With this year’s theme ‘Unapologetically Visible’ it’s important for young people to see others like them, and to be able to relate to and share experiences with likeminded people and families”

In 2022, The Northern Echo reported that LGBT hate crime doubled in the North East in just five years – rising from 458 then to 951 offences in 2020-21.

Statistics like this prove why there is a necessity for such a public display of ‘pride’ for the Queer community as there is still a long way to go.

Ste believes that “fact-based understanding” can go a long way in helping change people’s attitudes and prejudices in a mature and non-combative manner.

“The community are robustly challenged and have their pure existence challenged on a daily basis and it’s fuelled by misinformation and fear,” said Ste.

He added: “Through our Proud Allies Training, when we get into the fact-based detail around this, and when you start to break down the root cause behind someone’s fear and misunderstanding of the Queer community, you start to empower them and their education journey, so they can be informed through the correct information and start to create empathy for the challenges that people in the community have.”

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