Issue 163 - Belfast BT6 • BT7 • BT8
Belfast Pride 2022 was largest March of its kind for City !
PSNI said that attendance may have topped the 60,000 who attended in 2019. This was the first Belfast Pride march to take place in three years, after two years of cancelled parades because of covid-19 restrictions. More groups than ever were also represented in the parade including the PSNI, Barnardos, Ulster Rugby and the Ulster Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). The parade was led by a group of asylum seekers and refugees. Pride celebrates LGBT+ people and culture. Northern Ireland’s first Pride parade took place in Belfast in 1991, over 30 years ago! This years Pride also celebrated the legalisation of same-sex marriage in 2020 - a landmark moment for the LGBT+ community. The Police Service of All the colour and flavour of the Mela comes to Belfast with the arrival of the 16th Annual event at the end of August.
Belfast Mela announces return to Botanic Gardens
Northern Ireland’s largest cultural diversity festival, the 16th Belfast Mela, will make a welcome return to Botanic Gardens on Sunday 28 August after a break of two years due to the global pandemic. Highlights of the 2022 Belfast Mela Festival include: Saturday 20 August: a spectacular free Mela Carnival through Belfast City Centre from 12 noon at Writer’s Square to City Hall at 1pm.
1,500 participants representing more than 20 different cultural groups will be taking part with pulsating world music and dance and amazing sculptures finishing at City Hall for breath-taking aerial
acrobatics displays by Fidget Feet at 2pm and 4pm. 21 - 27 August: Mela Plus – daily music, dance, wellbeing and theatre performances Sunday 28 August: Mela Day at Botanic Gardens, the city’s
annual celebration of global cultures with thousands of visitors expected to visit Botanic Gardens from 12 noon to 6pm for the big Mela Finale.
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Northern Ireland (PSNI) has been policing the event for more than 20 years, but it began sending uniformed officers to march in Belfast Pride in 2017. The representation of sports organisations was welcomed by the organisers. The parade got under way at Custom House Square in the city before finishing at Victoria Street. The event was followed by an evening of entertainment at Custom House Square, including singing and drag queen performances. A family village was set up near the Big Fish monument on Donegall Quay featuring face painting, bouncy castles and performances by a local circus school.