Our Story
Happy Valley Pride is a grassroots charity created by our community for our community.
The catalyst for starting Happy Valley Pride was a piece of homophobic graffiti seen in the town of Hebden Bridge in the summer of 2015. This was a reminder that we are still fighting for equality, even in one of the most LGBTQIA+ welcoming towns in the UK. Four locals founded Happy Valley Pride and agreed on a mission:
“To celebrate LGBTQIA+ life in Hebden Bridge and surrounding areas. Promoting equality and diversity to eradicate discrimination, based on sexual orientation and gender identity, through arts, education and engagement.”
2015 - 2017
With the help of local artists, we turned the offensive graffiti statement into an art piece of celebration and acceptance. Sally Wainwright launched Happy Valley Pride early in 2016 where we proudly displayed the artwork to our community and allowed everybody to add their own messages of hope.
Human rights activist Peter Tatchell became our first Patron, later to be joined by trans activist and founder of Trans Creative Kate O’Donnell.
Soon we were running monthly socials, building our volunteer team, and planning our first Pride Arts Festival which took place in 2016 at Hebden Bridge Town Hall, we started delivering school assemblies sowing the seeds of our Youth Engagement Programme.
When Soho Theatre Associate Producer & agent Tim Whitehead joined our team after our first festival, we were able to start bringing the crème de la crème of cutting-edge LGBTQIA+ talent to our town, performers who would normally only ever be seen in the big cities across the UK and internationally. In 2017, we presented our first 7-day Queer Arts Festival & Pride.
2018 - 2019
Olivier Award winning performance collective Duckie made their first trip up North to put on a show of diverse art & activism, London legend Jonny Woo took to the stage of Todmorden Hippodrome, comedians Zoe Lyons and Suzi Ruffell graced our theatres, Camille O’Sullivan lit up Hope Baptist Church and stole the town’s heart, and satirical superstars Bourgeois & Maurice became part of our family.
Volunteer engagement sessions lead to the creation of events for and by the community – Lesbian Writers Readings, Tea Dances for our elders, a whole day dedicated to the talent of local musicians, art exhibitions, human rights talks and discussions and we started holding an annual Transgender Day of Remembrance vigil with local artist Kim Lana.
During this time, we won funding from Arts Council England, National Lottery Awards for All, Hebden Royd Town Council, Community Foundation for Calderdale and Hebden Bridge Rotary Club.
In 2018 we introduced a new format: alongside 7 days of queer arts, with events throughout the week, we had a stage in the centre of Hebden Bridge and an information fair running throughout the town on the Saturday which proved to be a winning formula.
We started running several successful campaigns highlighting issues faced by our LGBTQIA+ community, including raising awareness of Hate Crimes and how to report them to the police, encouraging HIV and Hepatitis testing, and promoting solidarity with our trans community via our adopted Stand By Your Trans campaign, (founded by Kate O'Donnell and Trans Creative), which you will see proudly displayed in homes and shop windows across our valley today.
By the end of 2019, we had over 50 volunteers, 8 trustees and 3,000 people were attending our events per year.
2020 - 2022
When the Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020 we moved our events online and hosted virtual shows from big names like Drag Race winner Jinkx Monsoon, lesbian singer Horse McDonald and US trans pioneer Justin Vivian Bond. We also showcased local LGBTQIA+ talent and created online community singalongs with local performer Kirsty Newton.
It was during the pandemic that we presented an LGBTQIA+ mental health panel, this was the catyalyst for a whole new arm of our charity focussed on LGBTQIA mental health called Mind your Head, a partnership with local community charity The Brunswick Centre. We created a resource on our website where people can gain access to self-help guides, watch videos of people with lived experience giving advice about how to cope with mental health issues, listen to podcasts and and find links to dozens of organisations that can provide specific help. We also provided online community talks, keep fit classes and later, in-person therapy sessions, including specific sessions around gender identity.
These events proved incredibly popular as a respite from the pandemic for the community, over 5000 people engaged with our digital mini-festival in July 2020.
Also in 2020 we were thrilled to be asked to become one of eleven partners forming Queer Arts North, a network of leading, northern LGBTQIA+ organisations including Homotopia Festival in Liverpool, Curious Festival in Newcastle, Leeds Playhouse and Contact Theatre in Manchester and more.
In January 2021 we became a registered charity, which added a recognition of trust in the work we do to provide a service for the public benefit. In the same year, we managed to create a small operational team, with an Artistic Director, General Manager and Youth Engagement Officer running the charity (albeit still on mainly volunteer hours).
As we emerged from the pandemic, we started planning a live return. Following a long period in isolation, we asked our community to take part in an art exhibition that celebrated them in places that were special to them over lockdown. Places where they felt safe, and places where the felt free. "Our Pride" featured a specially commissioned collection of 20 portraits by local photographer Bruce Cutts and was displayed at The Town Hall.
Our Youth Engagement Project really took off and we cemented partnerships with 12 local schools, engaging with 1700 young people. We produced the Happy Valley Pride Weekender in September - our first live event since the pandemic!
2023 - 2024
2023 was quite a step change for us, which started following a successful application to Calderdale Council for three year's funding as part of their Culture Fund. This meant we could really start becoming sustainable.
We delivered an inclusive & world class queer arts festival for all, increasing our audiences by 50% reaching 7,000+ people and 2,000+ children via our Youth Engagement Project and community workshops, delivered 12 live arts events including poet Jackie Kay, performance artist David Hoyle, lesbian singer Horse McDonald performing with her full band and a string section. Following community feedback we commissioned black and brown collective Cocoa Butter Club to join forces with regulars Duckie to create their first joint performance.
Our weekend event, family friendly, multi-art Big Day Out grew, taking place in Calder Holmes Park, we presented our first ever Youth Pride Stage created for and by young people. Alongside this, we delivered art workshops, Tea-Time Discos, 24 LGBTQIA+ artists-led workshops for young people, further developed Mind Your Head which included a youth radio drama project, and provided 49 volunteering opportunities and 87 freelance arts roles.
We also welcomed iconic lesbian singer Horse McDonald and award-winning poet Jackie Kay as patrons of the organisation.
The year ended with a bang when we won the Arts and Culture Award at the Calderdale Community Spirit Awards 2023, as well as being nominated for Charity of the Year.
By 2024 Happy Valley Pride had developed into a standout LGBTQIA+ organisation in the north of England and we were chosen as one of the key commissions for Calderdale Council’s year of Culture – Culturedale, this allowed us to pilot several strands of our work that we hope will continue:
Our piloted Volunteer task and finish groups gave members of the community a meaningful opportunity to actively co-design the festival.
We expanded our youth work to engage with over 3000 young people from 20 schools and youth groups. We piloted a Youth Pride committee so that young people could actively steer not only particular projects but the future of the organisation.
We created a pilot access forum which led to improved services for people with access needs including a wellbeing hub and walk-through videos on our website for all venues. This lead to engagement from people who identified as having a disability doubling, proving how vital it is that this work continues.
The festival in 2024 became our most successful yet, engaging with over 10,000 people, we held art workshops, film screenings, family-friendly events, community get-togethers, music, comedy and club nights. The Big Day Out alone was attended by 6400 with an marked increase in attendance from families and young people. Big name performers included Cheddar Gorgeous, Rikki Beadle-Blair, Olivier award winners The Tiger Lillies and winner of the BBC's Drag Race UK Ginger Johnson were all part of the packed programme.
Members of our team spoke to Gay Times, who said Happy Valley Pride has ‘a particular focus on arts, education and engagement, and have become a fundamental part of queer life in the area’.
We are grateful for all the support of our sponsors, volunteers and the kind donations of the public and local businesses. We wouldn’t be able to continue without them.
We believe education through art can help an equal society for all. Transphobia, Biphobia, Homophobia is all learnt behaviour, so we want to make sure everybody understands that this is never acceptable, and difference should be celebrated. The graffiti that started it all has become symbolic of the power of the people in overcoming intolerance and anti-social behaviour for Happy Valley Pride. You should be able to be yourself here, no matter how you identify and the sense of community shines through.
Let us all show our pride together.
BE HERE, BE YOU, BE PROUD!
