Brighton and Hove Pride is an annual
LGBT pride
LGBT pride (also known as gay pride or simply pride) is the promotion of the self-affirmation, dignity, equality, and increased visibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people as a social group. Pride, as opposed to sham ...
event held in the city of
Brighton and Hove
Brighton and Hove () is a city and unitary authority in East Sussex, England. It consists primarily of the settlements of Brighton and Hove, alongside neighbouring villages.
Often referred to synonymously as Brighton, the City of Brighton and H ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, organised by Brighton Pride, a
community interest company
A community interest company (CIC, colloquially pronounced "kick") is a type of company introduced by the United Kingdom government in 2005 under the Companies (Audit, Investigations and Community Enterprise) Act 2004, designed for social ente ...
(CIC) who promote equality and diversity, and advance education to eliminate discrimination against the
lesbian
A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...
,
gay
''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'.
While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...
,
bisexual
Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whi ...
and
trans
Trans- is a Latin prefix meaning "across", "beyond", or "on the other side of".
Used alone, trans may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Trans (festival), a former festival in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
* ''Trans'' (film ...
(
LGBT
' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity.
The LGBT term is a ...
) community.
The major event is an annual summer festival held in the first week of August, which usually consists of a parade through the city centre, a festival event in
Preston Park, the Gay Village Party and other club parties. Since 2013, it has also included an Arts and Film Festival and a Pride Dog Show.
Pride attracts an estimated 500,000 people to the city over the Pride weekend across the Pride parade, Pride in the Park festival, and related events.
Pride brings 2% of the city's annual visitors in one day
and an estimated £30.5 million to the city's economy, credited as one of the main ways Brighton has boosted its economy from tourism.
History
Brighton and Hove Pride began with a gay demonstration in Brighton in October 1972 by The Sussex Gay Liberation Front (SGLF) and a full pride march in July 1973.
Pride returned to the city in 1991 when Brighton Area Action Against
Section 28
Section 28 or Clause 28While going through Parliament, the amendment was constantly relabelled with a variety of clause numbers as other amendments were added to or deleted from the Bill, but by the final version of the Bill, which received R ...
organised the first contemporary Pride - a weekend of events which brought hundreds to the streets. After a shaky start with a large event in 1992, followed by bankruptcy of the organising committee and a much more low-key series of events in 1993, the festival began to increase significantly in size in future years, eventually attracting the support of sponsors, pubs, clubs and drag artists. Since 1996, the park festival has been based at Preston Park.
Pride events have traditionally been an environment for celebrating the diversity of the lesbian and gay community. In 2002 Pride in Brighton & Hove agreed to explicitly include and reference the trans community making that year's Pride for the first time an LGBT event.
In 2004, Brighton Pride became a charity, to develop the event, to advance public education – by raising awareness of issues affecting LGBT people, and to make grants and donations to other charitable and voluntary organisations in the area. In 2011, organisers controversially introduced an entry fee to the park festival, as the company was in financial ruin and ran up over £200,000 in debt. Since 2012, Pride has been under new management and has raised over £922,000 for local LGBT community groups over the past six years. The theme of the most recent event in 2019 was 'Generations of Love', which commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in the US, seen as a watershed moment for gay rights and the starting point for the Pride movement.
In 2020, the 30th anniversary Pride was postponed due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
, however a programme of online streamed events took place during the weekend. On 5 May 2021, it was announced that Pride 2021 that had been anticipated to go ahead in a reduced form had been cancelled due to uncertainty over
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
restrictions.
In 2022 Pride returned to celebrate 30 years of Pride with the parade, street party and the festival in Preston Park headlined by Christina Aguilera and Paloma Faith.
Pride festival
The weekend includes:
* The traditional community
parade
A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, float (parade), floats, or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually ce ...
with
floats, starting from the seafront via London Road to the Park
* "Pride in the Park" festival in
Preston Park with headlining acts
* The Pride Village Party (PVP) in Kemptown and the seafront
* Several club parties around the city including Pleasure Gardens in
Old Steine
The Old Steine () is a thoroughfare in central Brighton, East Sussex, and is the southern terminus of the A23. The southern end leads to Marine Parade, the Brighton seafront and the Palace Pier. The Old Steine is also the site of a number of Ci ...
* An arts and film festival
* A dog show
Headliners
Below is a list of artists who have headlined, or are planned to headline, on the main stage at Brighton Pride.
Gallery
File:Kylie Minogue headlining Brighton Pride 2019.jpg, 2019 - Kylie Minogue headlining Brighton Pride
File:Crowd during the Pride in the Park event at Brighton Pride 2019.jpg, 2019 - Crowd during the Pride in the Park event at Brighton Pride
File:Crowds at Brighton Pride 2019.jpg, 2019 - Crowds at Brighton Pride
File:Crowds outside Bar Broadway at Brighton Pride 2019.jpg, 2019 - Crowds outside Bar Broadway at Brighton Pride
File:BrightonPride2022.jpg, 2022 - Ukraine attendees at Brighton Pride
See also
*
Kemptown, Brighton
Kemptown is a small community running along the King's Cliff to Black Rock in the east of Brighton, East Sussex, England.
History
The area takes its name from Thomas Read Kemp's Kemp Town residential estate of the early 19th Century, but the ...
*
Gay Liberation Front
Gay Liberation Front (GLF) was the name of several gay liberation groups, the first of which was formed in New York City in 1969, immediately after the Stonewall riots. Similar organizations also formed in the UK and Canada. The GLF provided a ...
*
LGBT community of Brighton and Hove
The LGBT community of Brighton and Hove is one of the largest in the United Kingdom. Brighton, a seaside resort on the south coast of England, is generally agreed to be the unofficial "gay capital" of the UK, with records pertaining to LGBT hi ...
References
External links
Official Brighton Pride website
{{Pride parades
Pride parades in England
Brighton and Hove
Festivals in Brighton and Hove
Summer events in England