Northern Pride announces huge fringe event schedule including comedy and gaming nights

Newcastle’s biggest Pride event of the year is scheduled to take place over the weekend of Saturday, July 19 and Sunday, July 20 this year, but organisers will be putting on a series of other events for the LGBTQIA+ community to enjoy across the city.

The Fringe event will offer a range of community building events including comedy and theatre, along with LGBTQIA+ networking opportunities at a host of local venues across the early summer months.

The Fringe festivities will kick off on Thursday, June 5 with ‘Al’s Pals’ at Newcastle’s The Stand Comedy Club hosted by local comedian, Al Stevenson, and featuring a range of North East comedic talent including Matt Reed, Maxine Wade, Catherine Young and Percy Savage.

As part of the celebration, North East drag royalty and Pride Radio favourite, Ophelia Balls, will also be taking to the stage, debuting their very own one-woman show, ‘A Life Not in Heels’, on Friday, June 20 at Northern Stage.

Other highlights of the Pride Fringe programme for 2025 include an immersive screening of the Wizard of Oz at Tyneside Cinema, Pride Speed Friending at NQ64 and a ‘Pedro Pascal says Trans Rights Cabaret’ will take place at the Alphabetti theatre on Saturday, July 19th.

“It was very important, following last year’s satellite events, to increase on the number of those and make sure there are as many safe spaces for queer people to celebrate queer joy throughout the June and July” explained Jack Plastiq, one of the producers of the pride fringe festival this year.

“We highlighted a real... not struggle, but things the queer community struggle with” they added. “Things like making friends in a safe space which are really important to us. Even things like going to the cinema and feeling as safe as you possibly can and being surrounded by queer people and having as much fun as possible.”

“We’ve got a lot of variation in the events” added Haydn Brown, another organiser behind the event. “We have things which are less alcohol based, things which are more about making friends and being more immersive. We spread them over the month so it’s less overwhelming for people.

This year’s tagline for Northern Pride remains as “unapologetically visible”, something Director of Northern Pride Ste Dunn wants to keep as a key part of the events as they occur across the city.

“To me it means the ability to be my true authentic self without fear of persecution, challenge, or question, which is something incredibly challenging now for the community.”

He added: “It’s incredibly important for us as a charity and an organisation to remain firm and steadfast in saying that, as queer people, we have so much to offer the community and society that we won’t be anything but unapologetically visible.”

Some events will be ticketed with prices starting at £3, and are available from 1st May. Market stalls registration also opens on Thursday, May 1.

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