Bolton Pride co-founder hand over the torch to new director

James Edgington, co-founder of Bolton Pride is stepping down after seven years, and passing the torch to Kevin Wright, who will oversee this year's festival, which after Covid is said to be back with a 'boom'.

James said: "Since co-founding Bolton Pride in 2015, the festival has flourished into a key calendar event for the town and the LGBT+ community across Greater Manchester.

"The Bolton Pride Festival has received some incredible support from partners across the town and has been welcomed with open arms by the public who have enjoyed many different aspects of what the team has delivered.

"We are pleased that the torch can now be passed on to Kevin and his team who will continue the great work that has been done including more hate crime awareness, sign posting to support groups for the LGBT+ community and delivering a festival inclusive for all where people can express themselves and celebrate their differences".

From left are Mark Geary, Polton Pride Director, Anthony Cotton, Sir Ian McKellen and James Edgington..Bolton Pride launch night Gala Dinner held at The Macron Stadium. Photo by Nigel Taggart, Newsquest Ltd, Friday October 16, 2015.

Kevin said: "It is a real honour and pleasure to be approached to take on Bolton Pride. My new team and I have several ideas already in the pipeline but we are also keen to continue to encourage stronger closer partnerships with the existing diverse groups within the community. Watch this space.

"The fight against hate crime has not gone away and after a 2 year absence it's very important we continue to celebrate and fight against prejudices and seek to help educate, challenge and increase acceptance".

He said that the annual diversity will also be back and Bolton Pride will work closely with a neighbouring organisation.

Kevin Wright

Kevin said: "We are in conversations with Bury Pride to look at ways of merging this event as I think it will be a brilliant collaboration and build upon unity and offers a great opportunity to recognise the efforts of the various Pride stakeholders and their individual hard work".

Kevin and his new team include his husband Rob and they are already busy at work behind the scenes with existing stakeholders to ensure its continued success.

Rob said: "I echo who heartedly what Kevin and James stand for. Bolton Pride is a pivotal part of recognising celebrating and accepting individual's uniqueness and brings people together. I think it helps to send a message about learning from the struggles of the past, what's current and going on at the moment both locally and worldwide, and helps us as an organisation share highlights, learning's, issues and Pride's focuses for the future. The team and I are very excited for Bolton Pride 2022".

To find out more visit www.boltonpride.co.uk, face book or twitter.