Crawley Pride 2022: ‘Crawley Pride is massive for the town, it’s so nice to have Crawley on the map for doing Pride’

One of the main attractions for the 2022 event is a parade that will travel through the town centre, and the theme for the first parade is ‘carnival’. The parade will be made up of the event’s sponsors, Pride performers, The Mayor of Crawley, and local residents. Businesses in the town centre will also be greeting the parade as it walks past.

The parade will start at 12pm in the memorial gardens and finish at 1pm in Goffs Park, where Crawley Pride will be taking place. Gates for Pride will be opening to guests at 11am.

Crawley Pride 2022 will be the event’s most accessible celebrations to date for guests, and the organisers have included a disability-friendly area for people to enjoy.

Access to the bars was an issue for guests at last year’s event, so the organisers collaborated with Bar7 to provide alcoholic drinks and table service to VIP guests.

The organisers understand the struggles that people are facing at the moment with the cost of living crisis, but they encourage people to attend this year’s event to say a last farewell to the summer before winter sets in.

To help with the cost of a ticket, Crawley LGBTQU+ is providing a special discount for people who buy a ticket in person from their stall in the County Mall.

Julie McAuley-Walker, Co-Director of Crawley Pride said: “Last year was exciting, but this year we have the parade.

“I'm looking forward to seeing people getting together and just having a good weekend. It’s been hard work putting it together, but it is going to be worth it seeing everyone have fun and enjoy themselves.

“The difference between this year’s event and last year’s is that we have a parade and also we had two separate sites last year. One paid and the other free for the food vendors, stall holders, and fairground.

“This year it is just one big, ticketed site. Bar7 will be in charge of the VIP section this year and we have a new app where people can preorder their beer and wine orders. Everybody will be in one big site and all the stall holders will be able to be a part of it.

“The whole event is for everybody. Crawley Pride is massive for the town, it’s so nice to have Crawley on the map for doing Pride. It’s good to get the community together after Covid, but there still are a lot of things going on in people’s lives still, like the cost of living crisis. So it’s nice to get everybody together.

“We are doing 20% off tickets if people come to us in the County Mall and buy a ticket. If people want to buy them online, we can give them a code to get a discount. With the situation with money at the moment, we thought we would help families by giving them a discount on a family ticket.”

See more: Crawley Pride 2022: Here’s everything you need to know about this year’s event, Free outdoor public Wi-Fi planned for popular visitor area in Crawley, Horsham care home launches regular veterans drop-in for ex-servicemen and women

For more information about tickets, please visit: https://www.crawleylgbt.com/crawley-pride