Three days of live entertainment, community celebrations, and the annual Pride Parade in Bournemouth.
Bourne Free returns to Meyrick Park in July 2027 for three days of live entertainment, community celebrations and the annual Pride Parade. It's one of Dorset's biggest and most colourful Pride celebrations, and it's run by Bourne Free, a non-profit charity that celebrates diversity, equality and inclusion. The name comes from the idea that 'you were born free and so were we'.
The weekend centres on the Pride Parade, which winds through West Overcliff Drive, West Hill Road, Poole Hill, the Triangle and Bourne Avenue on its way to Meyrick Park. Once there, the festival site gathers multiple stages, a Hall & Woodhouse bar, fun-fair rides, VIP areas, food vendors, charity groups, a classic car presentation and a wellbeing village. The whole thing is built around the local LGBTQ+ community, and over the years it's raised around £44,000 for the community fund, with some 10,000 attendees and hundreds of volunteers.
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There's a bit of history to it, too. Bourne Free was set up in 2004 when a far-right organisation was due to come to Bournemouth and preach that homosexuality was wrong, and it's been an annual event ever since. The town's LGBTQ+ heart is The Triangle, home to venues like The Hole in the Wall and Oscar's Bar & Kitchen, and the festival is a big part of that scene. The parade itself takes you right through the Triangle on its way to the park, so you get a good sense of the neighbourhood it's celebrating. The festival runs for three days in July 2027, with the parade as the main event.
