Channel Islands Pride is back on Saturday 12th September

After a long, tough wait, Liberate are very pleased to announce that they will be hosting #CIPride2020 in Guernsey and they are promising one heck of a ‘Coming Out’ party. This will be the 3rd time Guernsey has hosted the annual Channel Islands Pride event. This year’s parade and celebrations on Saturday 12th September will be able to proceed as planned. The Covid-19 situation continues to be monitored, but the States of Guernsey have given the green light to throw ‘the biggest coming out party the islands have ever seen’!
With many countries still limiting large events and social gatherings, Guernsey will be holding what may be the only in-person Pride celebrations within the British Isles – in fact, likely within Europe! With the new ‘air bridge’ between Guernsey and the Isle of Man, it is hoped that CI Pride will be able to welcome visitors from the Isle of Man to Guernsey to join the celebrations.
Ellie Jones, Liberate CEO and CI Pride Director said, ‘We are very excited to be able to proceed with our Pride as planned. We know how incredibly lucky we are here in Guernsey to be able to host an event like this, this year. We are looking forward to welcoming people from the Isle of Man as Aurigny are putting in a special weekend Pride flight. We want to give them an especially warm welcome as they had to cancel what would have been their first ever Pride event.”
“The Channel Islands Co-Op are back as our lead sponsor for the 6th year, and we’d really like to use Pride to acknowledge the hard work their staff have done keeping the islands’ shopping supplies flowing during lockdown. They really are some of the unsung heroes of 2020.”
The theme for Pride in 2020 centres around visibility, both in daily life and through representation in the media, to enable LGBTQ+ islanders to feel supported, included, valued and acknowledged. The challenging events of this year mean that CI Pride will also shine a spotlight on the importance of LGBTQ+ people and their allies being able to come together and visibly demonstrate solidarity and the beauty of diversity.
Mark Cox, CEO for the Society, said: “As a community retailer we are delighted to once again support and sponsor the CI Pride march in Guernsey. The event is one that brings together not only the LGBTQ+ community but the Channel Islands as a whole, and that community spirit has never been needed more than now after recent months. It’s fantastic that Liberate are able to hold the march in Guernsey this year, with the correct measures in place, and our colleagues and customers are delighted to be able to take part. We know we can make huge changes if we unite together as a community and the Co-op are proud to be at the forefront of that by sponsoring the march.”
There are a host of events happening over the Channel Islands Pride weekend including the Drag Queen Story Time Afternoon Tea in Teepee at The Douvres Hotel, a Cabaret party hosted by Ivy Paige, star of BBC’s The Voice, at The Peninsula on the Friday, and a finishing, post-Pride afternoon pool party and BBQ on the Sunday.
Pride is, first and foremost, a free, inclusive community event and Liberate would like to take this opportunity to invite everyone to attend. They guarantee a warm welcome with music, dancing, fun, glitter and rainbows galore! The fun starts at 2pm in Candie Gardens before the colourful parade winds its way through town into Market Square for the biggest party St Peter Port has seen in a while! You can find a detailed schedule of all the events at www.channelislandspride.org.
Please note that all events advertised may be subject to last minute changes due to the changing COVID situation.