THE annual Pride In Weston CIO event has been postponed for this year until September 30 and October 1.

A statement regarding the upcoming Pride in Weston Hosting UK Pride event has been issued.

The statement reads: "The Pride in Weston team have been working incredibly hard to make the hosting of this year’s UK Pride event happen, all of our team members are unpaid volunteers and juggle their roles between their own day and or night jobs, as well as family lives.

"However we have also had to work alongside Event Management Companies to enable us to make this event happen as requested, with various issues raised throughout planning, regrettably a vast amount of our time has also been lost meaning we are now just over 6 and a half weeks away from what should be our event date.

"Pride in Weston as a strong, dedicated team cannot and will not commit to putting an unsafe and half organised event on for our community, this is much more than about being a commercial enterprise, for us it is about being able to bring all of the community together in a safe space to remember our past, where we came from, those we have lost and those we are still with, love and cherish.

"The Pride in Weston team want to be able to march and parade through Weston-super-Mare and be proud of who we are, we want to create a safe space, to empower everyone and smile whilst looking at our community enjoying that space to be free, feel valued and celebrating their true selves with their loved ones and our allies.

"With the upcoming date so close, we have now taken the decision to withdraw our existing plans and EMC and POSTPONE the July 1st/2nd event.

"This will now mean that Pride in Weston - Hosting UK Pride, will be fully managed and organised by ourselves and will now return to our roots and where we started in Grove Park, UK Pride is about producing an event that replicates your local pride, and this is who we are!

"We will endeavour to make this the best event possible within the park.Thank you so much for your continued support."

The new date decided for Pride in Weston hosting UK Pride 2023 will now be September 30 2023 and October 1 2023.