Brighton Pride is an annual summer festival held at the beginning of August. The festival involves a parade that goes through the center, a festival event in Preston Park, and other club parties. There’s also an Art and Film Festival and a Pride Dog Show.
The festival is organized by the company Brighton Pride, which is a community interest company (CIC) that promotes equality and diversity. The company’s goal is to eliminate discrimination against the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans (LGBT) community by educating the public. Now, it seems they have another goal – to eliminate plastic waste as well.
In August 2019, about 55,000 people partied at Pride in Preston Park. Performers on the main stage included Emeli Sandé and the headline act Kylie Minogue. Thankfully the event provided reusable cups, which helped to reduce the amount of trash by more than half, compared to last year.
According to an environmental sustainability report by the council’s Tourism, Equalities, Communities, and Culture Committee, last year, there were over 46 tons of trash collected from the park. This year, the general waste was reduced to 21.7 tons, after 3.88 tons of recyclable waste was separated.
“Brighton Pride 2019” was the first year that the organizers used reusable cups, intending to reduce the trash in the park. Preston Park and the Pride Pleasure Gardens in Old Steiner had over 200,000 cups available to users. Among these cups, 53,600 were lost, damaged, or destroyed. The organizers are looking at offering refillable souvenir cups in the future.
Brighton Pride became a charity in 2004 and has given grants and donations to other charitable organizations in the area. Since 2013, Pride has raised more than £922,000 for local LGBT community groups.
