BretonPride: Pride Month Trail & Pop-Up Space

We will create a Pride Month trail to encourage folk to further engage with queer places and organisations in the city. We will use a pop-up space in a currently unused space in the back of The Swallow on Bretonside to understand the viability of introducing a new queer space somewhere in the area in a more permanent capacity. 

Starting with a small pop-up display at The Box, the Pride Month Trail will signpost people to 37 Looe Street, The Old Queerisoty Shop, and the pop-up space at The Swallow on Bretonside that different queer organisations can use to display work and host events.

The Pride Month Trail and the Pop-Up Space will provide an opportunity for different queer organisations to co-create a program of events during Global Pride Month in June 2025 whilst also allowing organisations to understand how they might use such a space permanently. This provides a short-term outlet with possible long-term benefits for the LGBTQ+ community and their allies in the city.

There is an opportunity to take over the back room of The Swallow throughout the month of June for the pop-up space. 

The trail will encourage people to visit this pop-up space alongside 37 Looe Street and The Old Queeriosity Shop.

The current organisations involved are: Queer District Collective, Pride in Plymouth Community Trust, 37 Looe Street, and The Old Queeriosity Shop. We will also be putting a call-out and reaching out directly to other LGBTQ+ organisations in Plymouth that may want to be involved. We will contact these businesses and community groups in early to mid-April to allow plenty of time for collaborative planning. 

Each of these organisations, and many others across the city, have overlaps in some way. How might they use a shared space? They may want a regular space to exhibit a collection, hold a workshop, host a meeting, or understand how their community members might be accepted into a new permanent space for Plymouth’s LGBTQ+ community. How is an accessible and welcoming space made a reality? Let’s find out together and share the knowledge we’ve gained over our collective years of experience and activism by using and engaging with this pop-up space.

We're keen to explore the idea of ‘neighbourhood’ for a community of identity, for a community of people who don't live on the same street but are keen to look at notions of space and co-location while considering what connects us to the wider Plymouth community. This collaboration provides an opportunity to drill down on what makes us different and what makes us the same and really learn what might support queer communities in the city going forward and enable us to hear voices that have been historically marginalised.

We want to reflect on Plymouth's queer past, look at the present, and invite queer organisations to inform the future together. Ultimately, this is a pilot project for a future permanent space, as well as celebrating Global Pride Month.

Co-creating a programme of events that allows different organisations and volunteers to activate unused space and offer something in that space, from a one-off coffee morning to an art exhibition or a curated offering of the archive. 

37 Looe Street is an arts/culture/workspace that occupies part of the former Plymouth Arts Centre, and is home to ButCH - Bureau for the Contemporary and Historic, a heritage and arts consultancy. This will be one of three main stop-offs on the Pride Month trail.

We will host a Pride Month exhibition of a queer artist(s) here, as well as encourage folks to attend the Gull Fest exhibition, now in its second year.

As a part of their programme of events, 37 Looe Street also hosts salons on the third Thursday of the month, and we would like to use funds to invite a guest speaker to the space during Pride Month and provide refreshments for the event.

The Old Queeriosity Shop is a queer-run bookshop specialising in LGBTQIA+ literature - both fiction and non-fiction, poetry and children's.

They aim to be not only a bookstore but a community hub that is able to provide a safe space where members and allies of the LGBTQIA+ community can gather, and be a place that welcomes all with open arms.

What better way to learn about our community's past and present than buying from a bookshop specialising in sharing our stories?

The Swallow has been Plymouth's most enduring queer space since it opened as an LGBTQIA+ venue in 1982. We want the opportunity to test how far that makes it a safe space for the queer community and we can take that further by showcasing the city queer heritage in that space.

We will explore the use of The Little Box, which has recently opened up this space for hire for businesses and community groups.

We would aim for multiple establishments to have our BretonPride: Pride Month Trail & Pop-Up Space zine, which will give an extensive overview of the Pride Month trail, as well as highlight queer organisations and events across the city (for example: Shed 752 with Queer Out Loud & NeuDICE, Trans Pride Plymouth, UoP, Plymouth Arts Cinema, The Talk Shop, and QDC amongst others)

As well as the monthly First Thursday hosted by QDC and Minerva Cafe, we will also put on a celebration night for the entire community to attend at the end of June at The Swallow.

With the annual pride event looking unlikely to go ahead in its usual form, we hope that the BretonPride: Pride Month Trail and Pop-Up Space project will help inform a more DIY approach to Plymouth Pride, which utilises the existing queer spaces and venues in the area. We hope the existing plans for BretonPride will complement any future plans that will be made for pride this year, as it is clear that so many people and organisations across the city still want to celebrate together in some way.

The zine will give an extensive overview of the Pride Month trail and pop-up space, as well as highlight queer organisations and events across the city. Trans Pride Plymouth, Queer Out Loud, First Thursday, and exhibitions at The Talk Shop are just some of the things we want to highlight that are already happening during Global Pride Month to ensure that the community continues to support these fantastic city events. 

We hope to stock the zine at queer organisations across the city whilst listing them in the zine itself via a small directory.

Possible rental cost of The Little Box - ~£480 + insurance Rental of The Swallow for Pride Month - £700 Zine design artist fee and printing - ~£1100 Pop-up signage/printing - ~£1500 Celebration event - ~£150 Free coffees at select venues - ~£350 Volunteer expenses - ~£450

Queer District Collective, Pride in Plymouth Community Trust, and 37 Looe Street have worked together both directly and indirectly over recent years.

QDC is open to, and has been attended by, most LGBTQ+ organisations in the city over the years. QDC, PIPCT and 37 Looe Street have delivered exhibitions together as part of the First Thursday art programme established in 2021. For LGBTQ+ History Month in February of this year, 37 Looe Street again hosted Pride in Plymouth's LGBTQ+ archive alongside a program of events for the community, including the inaugural monthly salon that takes place on the third Thursday of the month, each with a different theme for attendees to explore together. This collective project for Pride Month allows LGBTQ+ organisations to work closer together and understand our differences and overlaps in a shared space.

We hope this collective is not limited to just three organisations working together. Still, it is continuing to bring LGBTQ+ people and organisations closer together in Plymouth and beyond. We look to create opportunities for all and advocate for marginalised voices whilst celebrating and remembering our collective history during Global Pride Month as we look toward the future.