Longford town bursting with enthusiasm and Pride last weekend

Last weekend marked the second year of Longford’s Pride Festival. This year, Longford Pride returned and was better than ever, with a whole week dedicated to celebrating the lives of the LGBTQ+ community in Longford and across the world.

“We got a really good turnout,” said Lorelei Fox-Roberts one of the events organisers.

“We had a few people that were originally from Longford themselves but have moved to different places, that have travelled back for the event.”

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This is Longford’s second pride celebration and this year was a far cry from the first.

“Last year was the first,” explained Lorelei, “and we just had the one-day event.”

“This is the second year and we’ve gone for the full festival.

“We were kind of trying to provide an educational basis too.”

The educational side of the Longford celebrations saw art exhibitions, poetry readings and seminars throughout the week.
Thursday specifically held a seminar on the work of TENI, the Transgender Equality Network of Ireland. This covered the family supports they provide and more.

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Saturday, June 7 was the main event and saw a craft market, the pride parade, the post parade entertainment and an after party.

There were people of all ages out on the town throughout the entire week.

“We had a quite a big group of teenagers and preteens that came with their parents and then all the teenagers that come themselves.

“But it was lovely to see, we had a big age group of, as I said, kids coming with their parents all the way up to older people in their 60s or 70s that were coming along.

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Unfortunately there were some negative comments online regarding the event. Lorelei makes it clear that they did not deter the celebrations.

“To be honest, I'd say there have been a few people leaving negative comments on Facebook posts, but we haven't really experienced any negativity in person.

“The negative stuff that has been posted, it just seems to be people that have an issue with the idea in general, as opposed to any sort of threat or risk to anyone that's involved or is based here in Longford themselves.

“So it’s actually been well received.”

Lorelei wants to invite anybody who is interested in getting involved in the celebration can contact the committee at info@longfordpride.ie.

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