Chill with Pride!

Sunday 7 August

The extensive arts and culture programme includes events at FACT, the Bluecoat and Tate Liverpool to name but a few and offers an exciting edition to ensure that the Liverpool Pride weekend ends on a high.

Big Gay Brunch

To kick start the day and ensure Pride goers are fully recovered from Saturday’s antics and ready to take part in Chill Out Sunday, several venues across the city including The Bluecoat, FACT, TATE, Sudley House and The Egg Café are offering a Big Gay Brunch with menus to suit every taste, from traditional fry-ups and bakers' baskets to healthy cereal and fruits. The Big Gay Brunch offers groups of friends the opportunity to get together and meet up to share their stories of the day before whilst making plans for the day ahead.

Magritte: The Pleasure Principle

Tate Liverpool are offering visitors to Liverpool Pride an exciting 2 for 1 offer to see the Magritte: The Pleasure Principle exhibition. Famous for witty images depicting everyday objects such as apples, bowler hats and pipes in unusual settings, Magritte’s art plays with the idea of reality and illusion. This exhibition reveals the inspiration behind the artist’s celebrated style, focusing on the less explored aspects of his life and practice. Featuring iconic paintings alongside drawings, collages, commercial work and rarely seen photographs and films. Simply quote PRIDE when you turn up at the gallery on the day to get your tickets at the special 2 for 1 rate.

Mersey Ferries

In celebration of the Liverpool Pride main festival site being at the Pier Head, Mersey Ferries are offering Pride passengers 2 for 1 tickets for trips across the River Mersey over the course of the weekend. Simply turn up at the terminal and book on the day, quoting RAINBOW to redeem the offer.

The Cost of Love

Picturehouse@FACT are to screen The Cost of Love (18), a North West premiere showing, with a Q and A with director Carl Medland following the movie. Fresh from the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, this is the first of our two crunching, contemporary British dramas. Male-escort Dale’s life becomes ever more complicated with his childhood crush about to marry and a trail of sinister happenings coming ever closer. Starring Michael Joyce, better known on the London gay scene as flamboyant drag artiste Estee Applauder, and Brazilian beefcake model Israel Cassol. Part of the POUT touring programme

Gay Gardens

Celebrate the green in the rainbow and get into the hippie spirit at the Gay Gardens event, which will take place between 1pm – 4pm at the Bluecoat garden. Keen gardeners from all backgrounds are invited to enjoy an afternoon filled with all things green including plant and seed swapping, a range of environmentally related stalls and an homage to Grey Gardens’ Edie & Little Edie as seen in the Maysles Brothers’ film. Come along dressed up as the best “Edie” costume will win a prize.

Liverpool Pride History

A History of Liverpool Pride will be on view in the bar at FACT, Wood Street, from 2 – 14 August. Artist and activist Dawn Brayford brings together a moving display of Liverpool Pride memorabilia from the unofficial Liverpool Pride festivals which were held in the 1990s which she has collated. These will be on display alongside excerpts from the docu-film Pink: Past and Present which comes courtesy of First Take and copies of Our Story.

Costume Drama Gallery Tour

An exploration into the fabulous fashions of yesteryear will take place at Sudley House in Mossley Hill from 3pm. Join curator Pauline Ruston for a tour and a chat about the gorgeous creations that lovely boys and girls would have been wearing in the 18th and 19th Centuries.

HeadSpace@EggSpace

HeadSpace@EggSpace present Summer of Love, an open group exhibition featuring a range of artwork using various media, themed around this year's Liverpool Pride curated by HeadSpace. The exhibition will kick-off with an opening party on Thursday 4 August at 7.00pm, so why not start your Pride weekend with a visit to the Egg! Summer of Love runs until 29 August.

Zumbathon

Later in the month on Saturday 20th August from 12pm, the Liverpool Pride Zumbathon® will take place at the Contemporary Urban Centre on Greenland Street. Ditch the workout and join the Pride Party with a 3 hour feast of Zumba ® led by instructors Martin Jensen and Stuart Harrop. The Zumba® Fitness program consists of a contagious blend of Latin and international rhythms that provides a fun and effective workout to a global community and can be done in a gym or at home. Since it began in Colombia in 1990, Zumba® has worked its way into the fitness regimes of over 12 million enthusiasts in 125 countries around the world, boasting that an individual can burn up to 1000 calories in an hour long session.

Organisers ask Zumba® virgins to come along and see what it’s all about, or if you’re already hooked, then take the opportunity to do three hours of your favourite exercise, all to raise funds for Liverpool Pride 2012!