600+ Prides! Lille Pride France, Highland Club Loch Ness, Bury Pride, remembering Paul O’Grady

Issue No. 36 - April 2023

Lille Pride 2023 France 25 May - 6 June

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Our third birthday

So, the Easter holidays are almost here. Besides being an important date in the religious calendar and a time of high risk for chocolate eggs, it also offers many hard-working people in the LGBTQ+ communities four beautiful pink days from the daily grind, with two public holidays in the UK, Friday 7 to Monday 10 April, as in many countries. So we wish you a great long weekend!

This month’s newsletter also marks three years of editions since we at PinkUk Towers issued our first humble newsletter in May 2020 at the height of the coronavirus pandemic and all the uncertainty that came with it. A time when LGBTQ+ run community groups, businesses or those serving our communities were being shut down for what eventually was a series of relatively long lock-downs across the UK for around two years. We started this newsletter to help promote the voice of business and community groups and others. So we hope it helped. Please let us know.

Pride festivals recorded globally To the present: the number of prides is 631 already this year, which is a record for this time of year. As you will have seen above, we also feature a great pride festival: Lille Pride, obviously in Lille, northern France, from 25 May to 4 Jun 2023. The UK sees Bury Pride, Lancashire, 29 – 30 April for those who enjoy and wish to support local pride festivals in the UK, more on Bury Pride below.

The venue we feature this month is the Highland Club, a four-star development of self-catering apartments, equally obviously in Scotland, more below.

Pinkest love from our team xx

Paul O’Grady

We should pay tribute to gay icon Paul O’Grady who passed away this week. Paul was famous for his role as no nonsense cabaret drag queen Lily Savage and later celebrity chat show host. He also stood up to the police when they raided London’s Royal Vauxhall Tavern bar in 1987 at the height of public paranoia during the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Featured venue: The Highland Club, Loch Ness, Scotland

The Highland Club, Fort Augustus is a stunning four-star resort of self-catering apartments converted from a fort, monastery and an abbey.

If you’re looking for a great remote get away in the UK but with home comforts, this is one of the best. Set on a 20-acre estate in the heart of the Scottish Highlands by Loch Ness, it isn’t just for those who are hoping to sight the Loch’s (lake’s) fabled sea monster, Nessie.

You can enjoy superb accommodation in a more comfortable style than the monks who used to live there. May-be sample the local Scotch whiskey, if that’s to your liking. The converted monastery offers great facilities including ‘The Chapel’ indoor swimming pool.

There’s eateries and shops within walking distance in Fort Augustus. If you want to experience the beauty and tranquillity of the Scottish Highlands in self-catering mode, you can’t do better than this.

More info about The Highland Club

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Featured event/pride: Bury Pride 2023, Lancashire, UK

We’re delighted to feature Bury Pride. Taking place 29–30 April, a public holiday in the UK, the organisers say the festival will use of colour, music, a samba band and floats. One for the diary! The parade route will be through the Town Centre, up to the Rock and then back down past Millgate, into the Market and then return to the Drill Hall.

More info about Bury Pride 2023

Prides/LGBTQ+ events

So far, for this new year, we have 183 pride festivals listed in the UK and 631 LGBTQ+ prides events in 47 countries worldwide for 2023. For 2024 we have 3 prides in the UK and 10 in 8 other countries. Keep us posted if you have a pride festival or event that needs promoting.

See all the prides/LGBTQ+ events we have in April, Add an LGBTQ+ event to PinkUK

We have 3,329 LGBTQ+ venues listed in 76 countries. Add a venue to PinkUk

PinkUk e-cards

We are making our e-cards section a password protected part of the site, with a minimum age of 18. As well as providing increased security for all, it also ensures that the main site can be safely accessed by young people who may need our information.   This step is to make the e-cards only accessible to member who have signed in. Members need to be aged 18 or over to create a member's account.

Scene, recently relaunched with its fabulous new print copy. We are proud to support them.  See their latest edition. 
Scene is the top UK, free to read, online, LGBTQ+ magazine.