Brighton Pride 2009

Web site: www.BrightonPride.org

It’s always a great day out and one of the best gay pride festivals in the UK. Unlike the other big ones in London, Birmingham and Manchester, the festival is held in a park with real grass to sit on and bushes to pee in. Yes Brighton is the original “party in the park”. Brighton has the highest ratio of gay people in the UK and the gay pride day is officially the cities busiest day of the year. You can always guarantee its going to be a great day out.

The day starts off quite early with people meeting at 10am by the pier on the seafront, the carnival parade then starts at 11am and takes about 2 hours to reach Preston Park where the festival kicks into overdrive. An estimated 100,000 people attended this year and from our own experience of walking the parade route it was one of the busiest ever. Being in the parade is for us one of the best parts of the day, more people should think ahead and organise a float or dress up and walk the route. It’s so much better than just watch from the pavements! Just as the parade came to an end the heavy rain that was due to tip down all day arrived. The massive Wild Fruit dance tent holds 6,000 people, which is mega big! However it doesn’t make much fun for the other 90,000 people that are left in the rain with no shelter. Someone tell Paul Kemp he needs to get a bigger tent! LOL

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Brighton Pride is a charity which helps promote equality and diversity, and advances education to eliminate gay discrimination. The free summer festival and parade which is the main event to raise awareness of these issues costs upwards of £300,000 to take place. This year due to bad weather fundraising bucket collectors were very short and they are £50,000 short. The shortfall puts a question mark over whether it will be possible to mount a free event on the same scale in 2010, unless substantial funds are generated.

Yvonne Barker, Chair of Pride in Brighton & Hove said that despite raising more in sponsorship support than in previous years, a combination of the general economic downturn, increased costs to put on the event, rising office utility costs and lower donations on the day due to the appalling weather, has resulted in the need to launch a major fund raising drive. Those wishing to donate can do so immediately online at http://www.justgiving.com/brightonpride/donate/

Visit the Brighton Pride web site: http://www.brightonpride.org/