Chichester Pride heads for sell-out on debut

Under the banner “Let’s Make History”, the festival is at Chichester College from 12-6pm on Saturday, May 28.

Dawn Gracie, one of the key members of the team, said: “We have been overwhelmed by the response, and it is definitely now going to be an annual event.

"Through the fundraising and the sponsors, it has meant that we have already got some money to start thinking about next year. We are all incredibly proud to have brought this to life. It is not our event . It is everyone's event.”

Dawn admits it feels like it has been a long time coming. Conversations about LBGT meet-ups and one day holding a possible Pride go back way before the pandemic.

“It feels like we have been talking about this for years and now it is happening we are in a different world. So much has changed, not least the fact that we are now looking at an event far bigger than we could ever have imagined it would be.

“It's certainly a different world for event management for a start.

"We've come through the other side of all the Covid restrictions but our duty of care still means that we're doing everything we can to make sure people feel very safe.”

The team behind the festival are delighted at the way it has been embraced: “We have had just a few negative comments. I could count them on the one hand, just a few negative emails criticising how we're doing it not so much as the reason why we're doing it. But overall the response has been great.

“It took a while. It was quite slow with tickets at first and we were thinking well let's just settle for the fact that the first one will have fewer numbers than we wanted but it's great that it is happening at all but from the beginning of May, ticket sales have just spiked.

"I do think people buy tickets later now than they used to but it has really kicked off which did coincide with a lot of activity from us just going out there and promoting it.

“People ask whether it is going to be like Brighton Pride and the answer is definitely no.

"This is a family festival day and we are really pushing the family festival aspect.

"People that have not been to a Pride before – and that is a lot of people – might imagine something from what they see online and just think it's going to be overwhelming, but this absolutely isn't going to be.

"We have really focused on the family aspect and on education.

"We will have the main stage with a full up line-up of entertainment and we will also have about 30 stalls and all sorts of things happening.

“There are a lot of people involved in putting this on and I would say about a quarter of the number we're allowed to have on the site are the security, the crew, the stall holders, the performers and so on, but when it comes to the actual footfall we will have from visitors I would say we're very close to selling out and that would be something close to 1500 people.

" It is amazing.”

www.chichesterpride.co.uk

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