Thousands attend Foyle Pride in Derry

Image source, Foyle Pride
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Mayor Lilian Seenoi-Barr led the parade on Saturday
Image source, Foyle Pride
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Organisers say more than 2,000 people attended the parade
Image source, Foyle Pride
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This year's theme was local and global communities
Image source, Foyle Pride
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Some used the event to make a political statement
Image source, Foyle Pride
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The first festival took place in 1993, 11 years after homosexual acts were decriminalised in Northern Ireland
Image source, Foyle Pride
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The parade concluded at Guildhall Square with a family-friendly concert

24 August 2024

Thousands of people have been in Londonderry for the 2024 Foyle Pride celebrations.

It marked the culmination of the 10-day festival in Derry.

The parade left the North West transport hub at 14:00 BST before crossing the Craigavon bridge, and making its way through the city centre.

It concluded at Guildhall Square at about 15:30.

This year's event - which organisers have said is a celebration of diversity and inclusivity - has had community, local and global, as its central theme.

A group of people hold a foyle pride banner as they stand outside Derry's railway station, with a large crowd behind them. A number of buildings can be seen in the background while a man and a baby in a pram are standing to their right

The festival has grown in the last 30 years

“It’s been a great week so far and we think numbers are up again, so we are looking forward to tomorrow,” Foyle Pride committee member Jim Doherty told BBC Radio Foyle’s Mark Patterson Show ahead of the parade.

The LGBT+ festival, he added, mixes party with protest.

“We do party in Derry as well as anybody else but the focus is always on the political," he said.

"There is a lot of stuff that has to be achieved yet on these islands but internationally there is a lot of awful stuff happening; in so many countries homosexuality is illegal.

“The death penalty exists in Uganda, for example. We see ourselves in an international context. We are marching for those people.”

'Celebration of diversity'

The festival has grown in the last 30 years to become one of “the key dates in the city’s calendar”, Mayor of Derry and Strabane Lilian Seenoi-Barr said.

“It’s a real celebration of diversity and individuality, the parade embodies inclusion and the atmosphere on the day is electric,” she added.

A family fun day and a Guildhall Square party took place following the parade.

Police had advised motorists of some traffic disruption but said officers would “be on the ground to accommodate the flow of traffic”.

A huge crowd, holding aloft a rainbow flag, walk down Derry's Shipquay street, as others line both sides of the street to allow the parade to pass

Last year's parade drew thousands of people into Derry city centre

Among the festival's closing events on Sunday is a picnic remembering gay rights campaigner Mark Ashton.

Mr Ashton grew up in the County Antrim town of Portrush before moving to London in 1978.

He was a leading figure in the Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM) group during the 1984 miners' strike.

'Celebration of diversity'

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