Love is in the air: Hull Pride makes welcome return with colourful city centre parade
STRIKING: A group on stilts were at the head of today’s Hull Pride parade
By Simon Bristow
More than a thousand people paraded through the city centre today, with thousands more watching, as Hull Pride 2022 put on one of the most colourful displays the city has seen.
Police estimate some 1,500 people took part in the parade, which began outside Queens Gardens under the shadow of the Wilberforce Monument, and was led by the Humberside Police Band.
Tens of thousands are expected to attend the various Pride events in the city today, all staged in Queens Gardens, which concludes with a ticketed live music event this evening, headlined by Boyzlife, a collaboration between Keith Duffy and Brian McFadden, formerly of the boybands Boyzone and Westlife respectively.
Former All Saints singer Melanie Blatt was due to conclude the afternoon’s entertainment with a DJ set.
The parade, which took more than ten minutes to pass, walked along Lowgate before turning right into Alfred Gelder Street, past the Rose Bowl at the other end of Queens Gardens, and then turned right again up George Street before making its way back to the monument.
As well as being visually spectacular, the parade was accompanied every step of the way by a cacophony of cheers, whistles, drums, recorded music, and various brass instruments, which all added to the carnival atmosphere.
JESUS LOVES YOU: A giant model of Jesus wearing Pride colours
Hull Pride is now in its 20th year, but was not staged in either of the last two years because of the Covid pandemic.
This year’s Pride is also seeing a change in the way the event is policed, with officers on duty instructed not to wear Pride colours or insignia, and not to march in the parade in uniform. Any officers taking part in the parade did so in their own time, with the police band, although in uniform, also being off work and appearing in a voluntary capacity.
Explaining the change in policy, Humberside Police Inspector Mark Lovell, the Event Bronze Commander, said: “It’s about striking a reasonable balance. Our priority is to keep people safe whilst maintaining that neutrality and impartiality.
“Pride is part parade and part protest, and as paid police officers we certainly can’t be seen to be paid to take part in marches. The other thing to consider for a day like today is there’s always a risk of a counter protest. If we were wearing Pride insignia, it wouldn’t help us if we were then trying to diffuse a situation if we were seen to be taking one side.
‘IT’S ABOUT FINDING A BALANCE’: Inspector Mark Lovell on policing this year’s Hull Pride
“Also, all the officers here today are deployable resources, and if anything happens elsewhere in the force area we may be redeployed to it and it could be a really serious incident or a really sensitive incident, so it wouldn’t be appropriate if we were wearing Pride colours.
“We are supportive of people being involved in the march or parade, we are only asking that they do it in their own time.”
SUPPORT: Hull North Labour MP Diana Johnson taking part in the parade
Inspector Lovell said he thought they had got the balance right, adding: “As the parade was about to set off one of the organisers said to me ‘thank you for keeping us safe’. There’s just something about those few words in that moment that I know I will never forget; it was so reassuring that he understood exactly why we were there.”
Earlier this month, organisers of London Pride asked uniformed officers from the Metropolitan Police not to march in their parade due to accusations of homophobia in Britain’s biggest police force, especially over its handling of the murders of four gay men by Stephen Port.