#Where was the first gay pride parade free#
The diversity of tents in the park has expanded to reflect the attendees, including specific spaces for women, people of colour, trans folk, bears, cabaret and more, until it was acknowledged to be the largest free Pride event in the UK.įrom its birth last century to the present day Brighton Pride has meant many things to many people. Under new management from 2012 Pride has raised over £110k for local LGBT community groups. Previous Pride management ran up over £200k and in 2011 and Subsequently went bankrupt. The following year saw the controversial introduction of charged entry to the park celebrations. Things came to a head in 2010 when a record-busting estimated 160,000 people celebrated Pride in Brighton, yet it was still dogged by money worries. In 2004 it was awarded charitable status, and as the crowds grew so did the scale of the celebrity appearances from Lisa Stansfield to Barbara Windsor, and more recently (2012) local talent The Freemasons and Fatboy Slim. Over the decades Pride has seen a couple of ‘weddings’, ever more outrageous floats and the odd anti-gay demonstrators who have been booed out of the park. However, being an outdoor event it has always been hostage to weather conditions and some years have seen merry revellers happily rolling around in mud lakes Glastonbury style. In a controversial move at the time, the date for Pride in 1997 was moved from the May bank holiday to early August. In 1996 it returned to Preston Park where it has remained ever since. The organisers have changed regularly over the years and financial problems never seemed far away, yet Pride has endured. The classic format of parade/park/street party is now something we all expect. The organisers managed to convince local businesses and performers that it was a good thing to be associated with and slowly Pride began to grow and change. The following year saw the start of the party Prides, though once again Pride took place on the relatively small space at the Level.
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A taste of the march through town and after-party on the Level in 1994 can be seen in this film – how times have changed…
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Pride 1992 returned to Preston Park but Pride 1993 ended with a Pink Picnic in Queens Park. The political Pride marches lasted four years struggling against a homophobic local press and pitiful financial support from the local council. Pride in 1991 was very homemade but very ambitious with a festival of events around town over the May bank holiday, ending in a Pink Picnic in Preston Park. It was born out of political objection to the government passing laws to ban the ‘promotion’ of homosexuality. It wasn’t until 1991 that Pride came back to Brighton.
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The first Pride march may have been small in numbers but they did it in style ending the day with a Gay Dance at the Royal Albion Hotel. Only seven years before that and gay men simply getting it on together would’ve ended in a gaol sentence. Organised by the Sussex Gay Liberation Front, it was a brave thing to do at the time. You probably won’t be surprised to hear it was a very small affair, certainly not the big parade with carnival floats and huge crowds we’re used to today. When do you think Brighton held its first Gay Pride march … 2000? 1990? You might be surprised to hear it was 1973.