Calls have been made for Sir Ian McKellen to make an appearance at this year’s Perthshire Pride.
Perthshire Pride, which celebrates the region’s LGBT community, will be staged on Saturday, August 10 and will include a parade along Tay Street and entertainment on Horsecross Plaza.
Sir Ian, who is best known for playing Gandalf in ‘The Lord of the Rings’ film series, will be performing in the region the same weekend.
He is due to appear in Dundee on Friday, August 9 and at Pitlochry Festival Theatre on Sunday, August 11 - any may even pass through Perth on the day of Perthshire Pride.
The organisers of the event are now campaigning to get him to make an appearance, called #BringGandalfBacktotheShire.
Claire Mackenzie, co-chair of Perthshire Pride, said: “We saw an opportunity because he will be passing through Perth anyway.
“We want to invite him along to Perthshire Pride, and hopefully get him to come along and maybe even make a speech.
“We know he makes a lot of speeches at London Pride and does a lot of work for the LGBT community.
“He is one of the founding members of Stonewall UK and is a major player in LGBT activism.
“He has also just recently launched a campaign called ‘Pride in Ageing’ for the 50 plus LGBT community, to give them a voice.
“Sometimes this age group can be neglected when you talk about Pride, as people tend to view it as a young person’s thing.
“But we would not be here if it wasn’t for these people who came before us, because they fought for our rights.
“We think Perth would be a good place for him to talk about this campaign, because of the region’s older demographic.”
She continued: “We have been trying to get in contact with him, but we haven’t heard anything as of yet.
“It would be unbelievable if he could come, it would be crazy to have him here.
“It makes sense for him to come, and we would be absolutely thrilled if he could stop in for even just 20 minutes.
“This would be so good for Perth. We want all the people of Perth to get sharing the hashtag #BringGandalfBacktotheShire, and hopefully the more people who get it out there, the more likely he is to see it.
“Everything is gearing up now because it is less than two weeks until Pride, so we are working hard to make sure everything is ready for the day.
“There has been a lot of late nights and early mornings, but it is all coming together.”
This year will see the first ever Pride parade, which will leave from South Inch car park at noon. The parade will travel down Tay Street before finishing outside Perth Concert Hall, where the Pride village will be set up on Horsecross Plaza.
