'Most challenging year' for Cork Pride as sponsors pull out
St On John The Parade Street Picture: Pride Patrick Allen
The board of Cork Pride has appealed for an increase in public funding to help secure its annual pride event as it faces “its most challenging year to date” for fundraising.
The board said it was facing a potential loss of some €140,000 in annual financial support following the withdrawal of three of its title sponsors, and signals from several others they may also not renew their annual support.
And while the 2023 Cork Pride event, one of Ireland’s most important regional events the LGBT+ community, will go ahead later this summer, the board said it had to cancel two flagship events, and may now have to exhaust its reserves.
Given the difficulty in securing corporate sponsorships in the current economic climate, it said local government support of Cork Pride will have to be increased or the very future of the event is “at direct and imminent risk”.
It set out its challenges in a letter to city councillors which was raised at Monday’s city council meeting by Labour councillor John Maher.
The city has provided a €5,000 annual grant to Cork Pride since 2016, with once-off increase to €10,000 in 2019 and 2022 but the grant has been reduced to €5,000 again this year.
The board said the level of support from Cork County Council “is even worse” at just €2,000 annually.
“In spite of several years of meetings and lobbying of various departments within Cork City Council, our requests for amplified support of Cork Pride have not been successful,” it said.
“For context, Dublin Pride receives just under €160,000 of support from Dublin City Council annually.”
Mr Maher backed the board’s appeal for the council’s funding to be “reviewed and augmented”, and has called for its funding support to be benchmarked against events like the Jazz Festival, the Midsummer Festival and the Film Festival.
Cork Pride runs more than 40 events annually, all free of charge, attended by over 30,000 people. But the board said free of charge does not mean free of cost.
Those costs were largely covered by ad revenue in the , but as that income stream declined, corporate sponsors played a larger role, starting with Apple in 2016.
But against the backdrop of "corporate lay-offs and turbulent economic headwinds", Cork Pride said its fundraising had been "hugely impacted", leading to the cancellation of its Work With Pride Diversity and Inclusion conference, and its Health and Wellbeing Expo this year.
The board said Cork Pride had grown from a small local march into “a beacon of support and solidarity” and created “significant economic benefits” from an inward investment perspective, and showcasing Cork as “a diverse, equal, and inclusive place".
And it said Pride was as relevant and necessary as it ever was with recent statistics showing an increased incidence of hate crimes perpetrated against the LGBT+ community.
The city council made history in 2014 when City Hall became the first civic or public building to fly the rainbow flag for the city’s LGBT Awareness Week.
Cork Pride takes place this year from Sunday, July 30 to Sunday, August 6, with its main theme ‘30 Years On…’ marking the 30th anniversary of the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Irish law.
Ireland’s Eurovision representatives, Wild Youth, will headline the post-parade ‘Party at the Port’ event on the Sunday.