“Last year was a tough year for us. I was leaving, but I’m not now, I’m staying for at least another 2 years. Every event has took a battering, nowhere has done as well as hoped. We didn’t do that well ourselves” says Warren Allmark , chair of Chester Pride.

Last year’s event was hampered by poor wi-fi including a protective filter around the court buildings. After previously announcing he was stepping down, Warren decided to stay on lead Pride through a troubled period. “We have 6 Directors but they all work full time. Funding has dried up, so we have had to let go one of our key members of staff. The café is doing OK but its a question of “use it or lose it”. The rents are quite high, the cost of staffing is high. We have had to reduce staff hours. A lot of businesses have said the same, Tesco have said they aren’t increasing their staffing budgets. I think we will start seeing a lot more self checkouts as its a way of saving money.”

“I think its a case of shouting about supporting the high street and if we don’t , there will be casualties. I was in St Helens last week, and it was bleak. There are 133,000 residents there and we have 88, 000, I counted 57 empty shops. In Chester I think we have 22 and most of them have got offers on or can’t be used. Last year I put out 857 letters to businesses along the Pride parade route. Chester isn’t dead, it isn’t empty and that’s the frustrating part. “

The Pride event in August will be reduced to one car park this year due to funding being so tight. The cost of putting on the one day event is £ £115,000. “ Prides all across the country are having to pull back. The prices for artists have gone up. An artist I looked at 5 years ago was 11 grand, they are now 45 grand! All the festivals came out after Covid, the artists got in demand again so their prices went up. A lot of events are going for tribute acts this year, I have got tribute acts booked but I don’t want a full tribute show. One of our headline acts might shock people , someone that’s a bit different ! ”

One initiative designed to save money is the Cash-uary scheme introduced at the start of the year. The scheme the potential to win a prize via a scratch card if payment is made in cash. “On average we lose about £12 a day in card transaction fees, and that adds up for a charity, It’s only been going 8 days, but our cash sales are up year on year. Cash isn’t for everyone. I spend a lot of time in Sweden, where cash just doesn’t exist. For independents cash is a helpful tool for independents.”

Warren spoke about the loss of drag queen The Vivienne, who died earlier this week, with the café setting up a book of condolences for the performer.

” I’ve known James for about 15 years. I have had to come off Facebook a bit because some of the comments are vile. I blame the media for that because they aren’t controlling the comments. They are allowing hate and false information to spread. We were their local Pride so we have a book of condolences set up, and we have a mural as well being painted as a tribute. James was only 32 and his family are seeing all of these posts. We seem to be having a reset where if you say anything LGBT, you’re called “woke”. Equality doesn’t come as a cost to someone else it just means people are equal. No trans person is thinking they want to invade someone’s space, they just want to live their lives. I keep seeing so much hate. The amount of hate we had on our pages last year… I blame America for this because people are seeing pretty pictures on Facebook and people believe it. People believe the satire pages even when they say they are fake! ”

The Rainbow Tea rooms is also host to a number of LGBTQ social support groups:

“Guardian Gathering is for LGBT parents. People come together , they have a chat about parenting skills, how they cope the usual homophobia experienced by same sex parents, We do a couple of youth groups and an over 60s group. There are a couple of groups aimed at trans people. There is a lot of support available, and the more we promote this the more hate we get.

” As kids are going through school now they are being taught that difference is not a a bad thing. We had this with people of colour, my nan’s generation would use certain terms that aren’t used anymore. This will happen, not in my lifetime but it will happen. There are certain things put in the papers that don’t help the cause, you just have to wade through all of the rubbish and falseness to get there.

“We do things at Picturehouse, they have been fantastic with us, as have Storyhouse, everyone has worked together. That’s one side of Pride , we do other things. We had the Christmas meal that was attended by 35 people. We did it here this year, but we move the location as some of the people that attended have escaped domestic violence. 35 people that would have been Christmas-less. We had homeless people here, and people that had been kicked out of the house for being gay. It was a lovely day and people made friends. The volunteers did a fantastic project. We also have the BOX project , that’s ongoing and we are pushing to get it in more venues. ( Supplying free condoms and menstrual products) . We are desperate to get it into the New Market , or as people call it, the Food Court! Hopefully we can pull it off. “

“There’s a lot of stuff happening in Chester. We get a lot of tourists in here and they all think Chester is fantastic. I always say to people “look up” because there’s some lovely buildings. If people walked around Chester they would see a thriving beautiful city. It has its faults, like anywhere. People would not invest 1000s into a shop if they didnt think they could offer something different to people. There is investment! If you can switch from a chain to an independent for one day, that one coffee is a massive help to us , and keeps us there. Chester needs to get behind what it’s got. We can all moan about things, but sandwich your negativity with something positive! ”

https://www.chesterpride.co.uk/