As Birmingham Pride supported by HSBC UK prepares to celebrate its 25th year, we are delighted to announce that ‘STEPS’ will be headlining the Birmingham Pride Main Stage on Sunday 25th September 2022 as part of their much anticipated 25th anniversary tour.
Following our most successful Birmingham Pride festival earlier this year, preparations are already well under way to deliver our BIGGEST pride event ever in 2022.
Birmingham Pride, supported by HSBC UK are pleased to announce our theme for next year's festival:- ‘25 years of Pride and Protest.’ It recognises and reflects on the advances made in terms of equality achievements, whilst continuing our fight against injustice, prejudice and inequality that continues to affect LGBTQ+ people at home and across the world.
Event organiser Lawrence Barton commented, “It gives us immense pleasure to announce our theme for the 25th Anniversary next year, once again supported by HSBC UK. Birmingham Pride 2022 marks 25 years of “Pride and Protest” demonstrating our firm belief that there’s no Pride without the protest. It’s as important now as it was 25 years ago. Our LGBTQ + community is travelling a journey to achieve true equality in society, and we are far from reaching all our aims. Everyone who attends and supports Birmingham Pride - a universally inclusive event, helps further our community aims. I wish everyone a safe and memorable 25th anniversary year.”
Additional information about Steps: Steps are the UK’s one of the most successful pop groups of all time, with 14 top five singles, 3 number one albums, 21 million record sales, 250 million streams & 7 sold-out national arena tours. The bands hits include #1 singles ‘Tragedy/Heartbeat’ and ‘Stomp’, the gold certified ‘One For Sorrow’ & ‘Better Best Forgotten’, the silver certified ‘5,6,7,8’, Last Thing On My Mind’, ‘Love’s Got A Hold Of My Heart’, ‘Chain Reaction’ & more.
In 2017, the band released their first single in over 6 years ’Scared Of The Dark’ which hit #1 on iTunes. They released their ‘Tears On The Dancefloor’ album in April which went on to be Gold certified by Christmas that year, reaching #1 on UK iTunes and spawned 3 A-List singles on BBC Radio 2 including the Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus (ABBA) penned ‘Story Of A Heart’. The year ended on a high for the band, as they embarked on their 22 date sold out ‘Party On The Dancefloor Tour’ across arenas in the UK & Ireland selling over 300,000 tickets - making it one of the biggest pop tours of the year.
2020 saw Steps return with the #1 iTunes single and #1 video ’What The Future Holds’ taken from the #2 charting album of the same name. This September, the band released the follow-up album ‘What The Future Holds Pt 2’ which also charted at #2 in the UK.
HSBC UK CEO, Ian Stuart added, “We are incredibly proud to be a long-standing supporter of Pride. We value difference and are determined to use our position in society to support diversity and inclusion in all its forms. Last year we marched in our living rooms, this summer we were back out on the streets, and now we look forward to coming together once again in celebration and solidarity with Birmingham’s LGBTQ+ community in 2022.” Birmingham Pride will take place on Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th September 2022.