Back in the Pink
Look back on this series of events to preserve and celebrate the LGBTQ+ history of Bradford.
Preserving and celebrating Bradford’s LGBTQ+ heritage in 2025, with picnics, festivals and the creation of a new archive.
Bradford 2025 and Castles in the Sky Projects proudly presented Back in the Pink, a series of special events and a new archive celebrating the rich and radical history of LGBTQ+ life in Bradford.
Pink in the Park
28 Jun 2025A day-long picnic and party!
This big day out in Peel Park was inspired by the short-lived but much-loved ’80s gay festival Bradford in the Pink, the Bradford Lesbian & Gay Picnics of the ’90s and a host of other groups, collectives, events and grassroots gatherings created by the district’s LGBTQ+ community down the years.
Find out more →
A day-long picnic and party!
This big day out in Peel Park was inspired by the short-lived but much-loved ’80s gay festival Bradford in the Pink, the Bradford Lesbian & Gay Picnics of the ’90s and a host of other groups, collectives, events and grassroots gatherings created by the district’s LGBTQ+ community down the years.
Back in the Pink Weekender
Back in the Pink, Bradford 2025’s series dedicated to the rich and radical history of LGBTQ+ life in the city, continued with a weekend-long celebration of gay life – past, present and future.
We invited you to travel back in time to explore the activism, community and culture of Bradford’s LGBTQ+ communities in the late 20th century, connecting with today’s LGBTQ+ community at workshops, discussions and a Saturday-night party. We considered how together, we can preserve our own communities’ histories for generations to come.
Scroll down to see what we got up to on our big pink weekender.
Events
Look back on the events from Back in the Pink 2025.
10 - 11 Oct 2025
Bradford LGBTQ+ History Walking Tour
Alice Parsons, Castles in the Sky Projects
If the streets could talk, what would they have to say?
11 Oct 2025
OUT All Night
Castles in the Sky Projects
Explore the Back in the Pink pop-up exhibition.
11 Oct 2025
Big Nights OUT
Castles in the Sky Projects
Learn how nightlife spaces supported community building with panels from activists, past and present.
About Back in the Pink
Paying homage to Bradford in the Pink, a series of festivals that took place in Manningham and the city centre some 40 years ago, Back in the Pink returned the histories of LGBTQ+ people in Bradford to the spotlight, celebrating their achievements and their stories – and connecting them with life in Bradford in 2025.
Pink in the Park, the first event in June, was a fun and free day out for people of all ages and backgrounds in Peel Park – offering an opportunity to step back in time and explore the city’s LGBTQ+ history with DJs, performances, screenprinting, workshops and a picnic.
In October we brought you the Back in the Pink weekender, a weekend-long celebration with new artist commissions, parties inspired by classic Bradford gay nights and venues, talks and workshops that reaffirmed Bradford’s significance as a place for LGBTQ+ communities then and now.
Help build the Bradford LGBTQ+ Archive
Through Back in the Pink we collected items and oral histories to document Bradford’s LGBTQ+ history – groups such as Lesbian Line and Bradford Gay Switchboard, venues like the Junction and the Bavaria, and publications including Graft, Bradford Gay and Antics. This material will form the first Bradford LGBTQ+ Archive, and will also feature in an accompanying publication and an LGBTQ+ heritage walking tour of the city centre.
If you’re interested in donating materials to Bradford LGBTQ+ Archive, or if you’re happy to be interviewed as part of the oral histories project, please contact [email protected].
Co-produced by Castles in the Sky and Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture. Funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Image © Emma Bentley Fox