Bradford Bulls offers stadium as venue for city's gay pride event Published duration 25 April 2016

image caption Bradford Bulls have offered their Odsal stadium as a venue for the event

An annual gay pride event hit by cash shortages is to go ahead after a rugby club offered its stadium as a venue.

Bradford Pride was due to be held in City Park on 28 May but organisers said it had been cancelled due to rising costs and a failure to agree licensing arrangements.

But Bradford Bulls has now offered its Odsal stadium as an alternative venue.

Bradford City Council said it had been talking to the group and was "surprised" by the decision.

The event, which attracted about 10,000 people last year, was previously run and funded by volunteers from Bradford Pride Committee.

But when the group's talks with the council ended, local business leaders formed a new committee to try to rescue the event, and Bradford Bulls stepped in.

'Rising costs'

Jason Courcoux, who manages Flares nightclub, said the Championship rugby club's offer included providing the bars, staging and security for the event.

Bradford Pride Committee, which has no involvement with the new event, had blamed rising costs, funding shortages and licensing restrictions for cancelling.

Anne Morgan, who recently resigned from her role as chairman of Bradford Pride Committee, said the talks had been a "nightmare".

"We couldn't even get a trades license to serve ice cream, and they wanted us to put up extra barriers and have stewards on every exit," she said.

A spokesman for Bradford City Council said: "We were willing to support the Bradford Pride event with funding from our Visitor Promotion Fund.

"We're not aware of what other funding streams the event organisers were reliant on."