Pride of the Déise announces €1,000 bursary and dates
The dates for this year's Waterford Pride Festival have been announced.
Pride of the Déise / Bród na nDéise, Waterford's volunteer-run LGBTQ+ community organisation, has announced the dates of its 2026 Pride Festival alongside the launch of a €1,000 Artist Bursary - the organisation's most significant investment in visual art to date.
The festival will run from Wednesday, May 27, to Saturday, June 6, in Waterford City and is being funded through the Waterford City and County Council Festival Grant Fund.
Founded in 2019, the organisation held its first festival online in 2020 - born out of the disruption of the Covid-19 pandemic - and the event has grown every year since into one of the southeast's most beloved community celebrations.
The €1,000 Artist Bursary invites artists to apply to create the visual identity of Pride of the Déise 2026 - including the festival poster and the organisation's much-loved festival fundraising t-shirt, which has become a hallmark of Pride of the Déise since its earliest years.
For the past two years, after receiving an increase in festival funding, Pride of the Déise has been able to commission Waterford-based artists to design the festival's main visual, recognising the importance of paying artists fairly for their work. This year, for the first time, the commission is being opened to a wider pool of applicants, with a formal bursary structure and increased fee, reflecting the organisation's growing commitment to the visual arts.
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Applications are welcome from artists based in Waterford and beyond and the selected artist's work will be licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 and will become part of Pride of the Déise's permanent artistic legacy.
Pride of the Déise has long championed the work of visual artists across its festival programme.
A spokesperson for the organisers highligted how the launch of this bursary comes at a moment when the value of human-made art is under increasing pressure, with AI-generated imagery becoming widespread across the events industry.
"Pride of the Déise was built by a community that has always understood the power of art to say who we are and where we belong," said Éadaoin Breathnach, current Chairperson, former Treasurer, and POTD founding member
"Our festival t-shirt and poster have become something people look forward to every year - they carry our identity through the city throughout the year," added Éadaoin, who went on to comment: "Now more than ever, at a time when so many organisations are turning to AI-generated images, we want to be unambiguous: we believe in paying artists for their time, their craft, and their vision. This bursary is a statement of that belief."
Meanwhile, Amy O'Riordan, the organisation's PRO and former Chairperson, said: "I'm so proud of what this committee has built together over the last number of years, and having Éadaoin back leading us into our seventh year feels very special. POTD was started because Waterford's LGBTQ+ community deserved a celebration that truly reflected them - and that has always included the art."
"This bursary is something we've wanted to do for a while, and we're finally able to do it properly. I can't wait to see what our 2026 artist creates," said Amy.
Applications are open now and close on April 3. Full details and the bilingual application form are available at: prideofthedeise.com/feile-2026-festival/artist-bursary-sparanacht-ealaiontora
Artists do not need to create new work for their application - examples of existing work are welcome and encouraged.
