Cookstown to host this weekend’s Pride celebrations

Cookstown will find itself draped in rainbow colours this weekend as the Mid Ulster Pride celebration rolls into town.

Set up with the intention of removing the rural isolation of Mid Ulster’s LGBTQI+ community, the Dungannon based organisation – alongside hundreds of allies – will parade through the main street of Cookstown from 1pm on Saturday, with events kicking off at the earlier time of 12noon at the Cookstown Community Centre.

Speaking to the Tyrone Herald, Mid Ulster Pride chairman Josh Cuddy said he has high hopes for the event.

“We have 13 drag queens from Belfast coming up to entertain us this year as well as the premier of Tyrone’s newest queen, Westa Theban,” he said.

Westa has been described as a “very local widow with 40 acres of land on the county border between Tyrone and Cork” and is set to premier her act at this year’s Pride where she will co-host alongside numerous of your other favourite Irish drag acts.

Josh continued, “For this year’s Pride, we are aiming to make it a more family-friendly event as we had a huge turnout of families and children last year.

“This will involve numerous activities such as drag queen story time and arts and crafts.

“The evening entertainment will run until 5pm and will involve a lot of drag routines of varying sorts such as lip syncing and a few rather out there performances later on in the day.

“We’re going rather small this year as we prepare for a huge celebration next year on what will be our fifth anniversary. So that’s going to be a big one.”

So don’t miss this local celebration of love and unity as it lights up the streets of Cookstown this coming weekend in what promises to be another spectacular Pride celebration for the people of Mid Ulster.