Watch: 'History made' during first ever Mid and East Antrim Pride parade in Ballymena
The event on Saturday, June 28 was a first for the town with participants making their way from Waveney Road through the town to Greenvale Street.
In a video posted on the MEA Pride Facebook page, founder and chairperson Curtis Coburn expressed his gratitude to all who helped make the parade such a success. “I’m still just blown away. I think it’s fair to say that history was made,” he added.
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Hide Ad"We expected a good showing [and for] spectators to come out and watch, but we never could have imagined that it would be on the scale that it was. For our very first Pride to have thousands of people involved in a town like Ballymena is just so beyond what we ever could have imagined.”
A number of protestors were present on the day of the event, with some holding religious placards.
Meanwhile on Monday, June 30, a teenager appeared in court charged with spreading slurry on parts of the route hours before the parade was due to start.
In the months leading up to the event, Curtis said he was told not to go ahead with MEA Pride 2025.
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Hide Ad“I held my nerve, because a tiny part of me always believed that we live amongst largely decent, accepting and hard working tolerant people,” a separate social media post read. “But I think [Saturday] took us all by surprise; when we turned up towards Wellington Street, and the closer we got to the Harmony Hub, the volume of people was absolutely unreal.
"Ballymena, you did us all proud. This is the town I love, this is real community.”
On Saturday, the PSNI said there would be an increased police presence in the town to “ensure everyone’s safety”.
“Pride is an important event for those in our community who identify as LGBT+ and for those who want to show support for our LGBT+ community,” a PSNI spokesperson said.
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Hide Ad"We want members of our LGBT+ communities in Mid and East Antrim to feel represented by their Police Service and to know that if they come forward to report an incident, they will be met with fairness and respect, particularly if they have been subject to hate crime in any form.”