Nightingale and more LGBTQ+ nightlife at risk as administrators prepare

The nightingale. Credit: Google Earth

The fate of Birmingham Pride and some of Birmingham’s best-known LGBTQIA+ venues and festivals hangs in the balance after its owners sought legal protection against the actions of its creditors.

GB Holdings (UK) is the parent company of Birmingham Pride, which is the UK’s second largest Pride festival, The Village Inn, one of Birmingham’s oldest LGBTQ+ spaces and The Nightingale, which describes itself as “the heart of the LGBTQIA+ city. the night life and clubbing scene”.

The group also owns The Loft Bar & Kitchen, next to the Hippodrome, Solihull Summer Fest and Paric Festival, the largest Irish music and culture event at Birmingham’s Irish Centre.

GB Holdings (UK) and The Nightingale (UK) have both filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators, which is a process that prevents creditors from taking action for 10 days and is designed to give companies the space they need to provide a solution for financial problems. Problems. GB Holdings (UK) has delayed filing its 2023 accounts by two months and a compulsory delisting notice was published by the Companies Registry on Tuesday.

Lawrence Barton, Birmingham’s night economic adviser is described as the owner of GB Holdings (UK) on the company’s website, although he does not hold a majority stake and has not been a director for almost five years. He is also a significant minority shareholder in The Nightingale (UK), but left the board in October 2022.

Barton is also Deputy Lieutenant of the West Midlands, a leading commissioner of the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) and a board member of the Birmingham Southside BID.

The Nightingale’s current directors are David Nash and Terence Runcorn. Both Nash and Runcorn are also part of the GB Holdings management team, with Nash looking after festivals and venues and Runcorn in charge of operations.

Around 75,000 people celebrated at Birmingham Pride last weekend, with artists including Natasha Bedingfield, Eurovision winner Loreen and Birmingham singer Jamelia performing at the 27th year of the festival.

Organizers have called on the council to find the event a new home for 2025 as the site will make way for the £1.9 billion Smithfield regeneration scheme.

The plans include a new home for the town’s historic Bull Ring markets, new leisure and cultural spaces including a festival square and a landscaped park.

Birmingham City Council planning officers have again delayed their decision on the Smithfield masterplan this monthas concerns have been raised about the scheme’s open spaces and currently proposed connectivity.

Festival director Lawrence Barton told the BBC that the space in the festival square had been reduced: “We were promised a space that would hold 20,000 people.

“After five years, we are presented with a space that, with infrastructure, could probably accommodate 3,000 to 4,000 people. It’s just not favorable for us.

“The future right now looks a little bleak.”

Both Lawrence Barton and GB Holdings were contacted for comment without receiving a response.