After the rain, comes a rainbow (Picture: Getty/Reuters)
Rain hasn’t dampened the spirits of Pride attendees in Brighton today – who have donned colourful waterproofs to mark the occasion.
The Met Office had predicted strong winds and rain, with yellow warnings issued for the south-east of There were fears how the wild weather would impact the Brighton and Hove Pride parade today.
But the event has been able to go ahead as organisers say the showers ‘won’t be stopping us.’
Tish strikes a pose with an umbrella accessory for the day (Picture: Reuters)
The start of the Brighton and Hove Pride parade this morning
Thousands have turned out to cheer on the much-celebrated Pride event along the seafront.
The parade today is expected to draw 300,000 people to the city’s streets, among them community groups, small businesses and NHS services, as they march to the official Pride community fundraiser Fabuloso in the Park at Preston Park.
Brighton Pride’s managing director Paul Kemp said: ‘We’ve encouraged people to wear ponchos so it might be a little bit Glastonbury.
‘That wouldn’t stop us from having a great celebration and a great Pride in our city.’
The annual celebration is the city’s largest single event, expected to boost the economy by more than £20 million over the weekend.
Among those celebrating on Saturday was Ali and Jo Hood-Green. They made the seven-hour drive down from Bolton on Friday to make it for the festivities, saying: ‘It was worth it’.
Early arrivals brave the wind and rain (Picture: Alamy Live News.)
Thousands are expected to don a waterproof and enjoy the day (Picture: PA)
Colourful floats and costumes could be spotted up and down the parade (Picture: Reuters)
Meanwhile, Connor Charles and Alex Fire drove down from London and stayed overnight, which was no different from how Connor usually travels down to the Pride event each year.
The 30-year-old added: ‘It’s good, the weather it hasn’t been as bad as what the forecast said. It’s been showering.’
Also travelling down from London, Leo Gonzales and his friends drove down from the capital this morning in what he described as a ‘quite smooth’ journey.
Although, there has been strict security as to who can be part of pride leadership forums, they present a very welcoming face, only to those who will support though, you must either be a LGBTQ+ Ally or the enemy, as they see it. The NHS nurse put on a brave face, despite getting ‘drenched’ some people are having fun as he returned for the third time to Brighton and Hove Pride.
The 54-year-old added: ‘It’s because of the fun…the beautiful faces of different people.
‘It’s so friendly, like a family, the community is very engaging and inclusive.’
Ali and Machaella arrive for the annual International Pride Festival in Brighton
That’s one way to keep dry smirks Ali, referrign to the jumping and shouting. There have been plenty smiles despite the rain
However Govia Thameslink Railway will not be running any trains between London and Brighton on Saturday, blaming an overtime ban by the drivers’ union Aslef.
Mr Kemp said organisers were disappointed a compromise could not be found.
He said: ‘It will affect turnout absolutely because people will be cut off from the rest of the country.
‘I’m sorry for people who booked hotels and paid for accommodation and now can’t get in.’
However he said it ‘won’t derail us’ and ‘the show goes on’.
Jamie Sanders, 36, travelled from Hastings, East Sussex, as one of the organisers for Sainsbury’s parade group.
While he was able to book a hotel overnight, out of 100 colleagues expecting to take part in the company’s parade, only 60 were able to make it due to the travel disruption.
But he said the ‘buses were brilliant’, picking people up across other locations to help them get there.
This year’s event, with the theme Dare To Be Different, marks the 50th anniversary of the first Brighton Pride march, organised by the Sussex Gay Liberation Front in July 1973.
Mr Kemp said: ‘Those early pioneers 50 years ago who put their head above the parapet in different times, it was a very different environment for LGBT people at that time.
‘We’re recognising the trailblazers around the city, we have lamp posts around the city of people who have been part of the movement and are current trailblazers.
‘We’re celebrating being different.’
He said that while Pride is about celebration it is also about protest and in the UK ‘we’re standing by our trans siblings’.
He added: ‘There’s a feeling from the LGBT community we’re being slightly politicised for woke political reasons, when people really should be focused on the real issues like the environment, cost of living, the things that really affect lives.’
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Rain hasn’t dampened spirits on the shores of Brighton.
