Braving a heavy rain downpour, a colourful flotilla of community-decorated punts celebrated the UK’s first ever LGBT+ river parade, processing down historic River Cam cheered on by festival-goers thronging the river banks, and Dykes on Bikes accompanying on the adjacent Chesterton Road.
Spirits were not dampened and a carnival atmosphere descended on Jesus Green during Cambridge’s long-awaited and highly anticipated Pride event, which delivered an action-packed programme of music, cabaret, dance, spoken word, creative workshops and more.
The Pink Festival Group, a registered charity, organised Cambridge Pride as a free and family-friendly event to celebrate the diversity of Cambridgeshire’s large LGBT+ community, and to promote equality, diversity and inclusion.
Cambridge Pride in numbers
· An estimated 5,000 people attended Cambridge Pride 2019.
· More than 150 entertainers performed during the day-long festivities.
· Eight punts, each decorated to represent the colours of the LGBTQ+ rainbow flag, processed down historic River Cam.
· Jesus Green hosted nine tents and ‘zones’, from the Main Stage and Community Lounge to Youth Tent and Wellbeing area, each hosting its own schedule of free entertainment.
Lara Jaffey, Chair of The Pink Festival Group, said: “We are incredibly proud of how the first Cambridge Pride parade and festival was received by the thousands who came out to celebrate with us.
"I feel humbled by the amazing response and support for this event from the Cambridgeshire community, from those who came along to enjoy the day, to the volunteers who gave so much to the event, and to the incredible sponsors who supported us and had faith in the very first Cambridge Pride event.
"There was such an abundance of goodwill for Cambridge Pride and, it sounds cliché but, there was such an atmosphere or love and acceptance throughout the day – no matter the weather. We are already working on plans for Cambridge Pride 2020, so this really is just the beginning of what we expect to become a staple of the Cambridge events calendar.”
Cambridgeshire has the UK’s second largest population of LGBT+ residents, at 1.8 per cent of the county’s population identifying as LGBT+, only topped by London at 3.1 per cent, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Sponsors of Cambridge Pride 2019 were:
ARM | Jagex |
Cambridge City Council | RealVNC |
Glamazon (Amazon’s LGBT network) | Samsung |
The Kite Trust | University of Cambridge |
Partners of Cambridge Pride 2019 were:
Cambridge BID | Luminescence Communications |
Microsoft |
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Friends of Cambridge Pride 2019, local organisations who supported the event, were:
Bayer | Enchanted Cinema |
Encore Estate Management | Johnson Matthey |
Graduate Union | Marshall Ford |
Greene King | GMB Union |
Irwin Mitchell | Unison |
Satyam Yoga & Wellbeing | Hilton |
About Cambridge Pride and The Pink Festival Group:
The Cambridge Pride committee is a small team of unpaid volunteers. They work in partnership with the Pink Festival Group, a well-respected local LGBT+ charity, originally founded to organise the successful Pink Picnic event at Cherry Hinton Hall in 2003.
As a not-for-profit organisation, all money raised for Cambridge Pride 2019 will help fund the delivery of the event, including marketing and infrastructure. Any profits are used to support future events and/or charities and organisations supporting LGBT+ people in Cambridgeshire.
The Pink Festival Group is delighted to be supporting the creation of the first Cambridge Pride. As a committed group of volunteers we have years of experience in organising events in the city, including six Pink Festival events at Cherry Hinton Hall and hosting the cabaret tent at the Cambridge Live Big Weekend for two years we are excited to use this wealth of experience to support new volunteers coming through to put on this community event.
Lara Jaffey, Chair of The Pink Festival Group, is also Executive Director of the Kite Trust, Cambridgeshire’s leading organisation working with LGBT+ young people.
Data sources: Cambridgeshire Insight and Office of National Statistics.