The biggest LGBTQ+ celebration of the year is returning to Sheffield! Rosie Brennan explores five ways to show your Pride in the city this June
Pride month in Sheffield always hosts a variety of events that celebrate queer joy and culture and 2025 is no exception. Support LGBTQ+ charities, businesses, artists and performers all over the city to show your Pride, or express your allyship.
Returning to Neepsend and Kelham Island for another inclusive day festival, Kelham Pride 2025 [Sat 21 Jun] is set to celebrate queer joy in style once again. Last year’s event saw 10,000 attendees, 600 parade walkers, 150k followers, 25 stall holders, 12 acts and 9 partner venues bustling in 14 hours of celebration.
Kelham Pride 2025 promises even more excitement and is still free for everyone. Expect a broad range of entertainment from live musicians, DJs, drag queens, comedians and guest speakers. The parade begins at 12:30pm at Kelham Island Museum, and will march around the area, ending at the Main Stage on Burton Road. There will be drop-in locations throughout the day and into the evening. Partner venues include Yellow Arch, Peddler, Alder Bar, Factory Floor, Neepsend Social, Grafters and many more.
Sheffield’s very own LGBT+ choir ‘Out Aloud’ has teamed up with the city’s largest LGBTQ+ event, Kelham Pride, to offer a free and inclusive opportunity to be part of the celebration.
The community choir is hosting a ‘Big Sing’, an open workshop for all members of the queer community to join them to rehearse [Wed 18 Jun] at Yellow Arch Studios in Neepsend 7:30-9:30pm. No experience is required to attend, simply a love for music and a desire to get involved. The choir will then be performing at Kelham Pride [Sat 21 Jun], kicking off the extravagant parade with Pat Humphries’ marching melody “Never Turning Back”.
Anna Kent, choir administrator, Out Aloud said: “We are so excited to host this event in preparation for Kelham Pride 2025. We are welcoming everyone to get involved, and we’re confident our amazing choir leader, Val Regan will have you singing in no time!”
“Out Aloud is a community choir which means there are no auditions and there’s no need to read music. You don’t need any experience, and we are a friendly bunch so come along and add your voice. If you can talk, you can sing!”
Tracey Marshall, parade organiser, Kelham Pride, said: “I can’t think of a better way to begin our parade than with the fantastic chorus of Out Aloud.
“Their Big Sing is the perfect way to get people involved in Kelham Pride, engaging the community and entertaining our proud paraders!”
To sign up to the Big Sing, please fill out the sign up form.
This queer grassroots group will host a second, more political Pride march [Sat 5 Jul], starting at City Hall at 1pm. Hundreds of protesters will gather to rally behind Rad Pride’s mission to “bring anti-capitalist protest back to Pride”.
Queer community doesn’t exist unless you make it, it’s time for Radical Pride. This annual protest stands as a powerful testament to the true meaning of Pride at its core, and the impact of grassroots activism.
Radical Pride will also be taking over Mount Pleasant Park later that afternoon at 3pm, hosting a range of stalls and activities by the queer community, for the queer community, with everything from hand-made goodies to game stalls and face painting.
The organisation also provides accessible leaflets and links to information on key topics for the trans community, like UK gender clinic service wait times and hormone help, as well as how to find local queer groups, all of which can be found via their Linktree.
This once a month meet up at Gut Level is returning [Sat 21 Jun] with a Queer Lens film screening, community meal and discussion in a QTIBPOC (Queer, Trans, Intersex, Black and People of Colour) Cinema Club. The meet up is designed to uplift QTIBPOC stories and disrupt colonial and straight narratives.
The Pride edition will show a screening of Lingua Franca, the story of Olivia – a trans woman with undocumented status in Brooklyn – followed by Dancing Queer, a night of queering and decolonising Arabic dance for Migration Matters Festival, celebrating 10 years of sanctuary in the steel city [20-28 Jun].
They ask for attendees to bring along any food they would like to be shared at 6pm, starting the movie at 7pm. Each screening begins with special ‘ads’ and a trailer for the next month’s movie, there is also space for discussion at the end of the film. To attend this event, you must be registered as a Gut Level member, membership starts from £2 per year, sign up before buying a ticket.
Wishing you all a fantastic Sheffield Pride!
