Bristol Pride 2025 is set to be one of the UK’s landmark LGBTQ+ festivals, running for two weeks—Saturday 28 June to Sunday 13 July—culminating in Pride Day on Saturday 12 July at The Downs
00:00Yeah, here we are. Bristol Pride is coming up and as you might be able to hear in the background, the site is being built.
00:07So our main stage is going up. You'll see behind that some of our marquees are being put in place.
00:13So actually, yeah, the site is very busy at the moment. Lots going on as we prepare to welcome thousands of people to the festival this weekend.
00:21Bristol Pride, we're a charity organisation. We don't get funding to make Pride happen.
00:25So we have to raise all the money to do what we do ourselves. But we work all year round to tackle prejudice and hatred and to be a voice to stand up for our community.
00:37Bristol Pride has got bigger and bigger and bigger every year. You've actually won awards now because it's become so successful.
00:44Tell me a little bit about that. What is it like for you seeing how much Bristol Pride has grown?
00:49Oh, it's incredible. So this is my 16th festival that I've delivered for Bristol Pride.
00:53And it is incredible to see how much has grown from our early days down in Castle Park to the amphitheatre to now here on the Downs.
01:00And every year it gets bigger and better. More people are joining us. We're expecting 40,000 people to come to the festival on Saturday.
01:0825,000 people joined us on the parade march last year. Probably similar numbers, if not more.
01:13So it's just incredible to see how much has grown, how much people want to get involved and support it and be part of Pride.
01:18The whole city wants to get behind us. And I think that's just really incredible to see, but really important as well when it's such a hard and challenging climate for our community.
01:28But yeah, it's great to win awards. You know, I'm really proud of that.
01:33And I share that pride with, you know, all the team and all our volunteers that make Pride so incredible.
01:39You know, we win Best Event in the Bristol Life Awards, you know, multiple times over the last couple of years.
01:45But most recently, yeah, we won Best Non-Music Festival in the UK Festival Awards.
01:50And it's just incredible to be up there with Isle of Wight Festival and some of the biggest festivals we have in the UK and Bristol Pipe being recognised for being one of the best in the UK.
02:00And you know what? We are in 2025, but there is still a lot of oppression for the community.
02:06Why more than ever now is this still so important?
02:10Yeah, it is still so important because there's still people out there in our community being told that they shouldn't exist and that, you know, that we are being erased from society.
02:21And I think it's so important because even myself, I'm seeing the rising tide of Patriot online, but also in person.
02:30You know, I got homophobically abused here in Bristol just a few days ago.
02:33So it's really important that Pride is still here and that people come and support it, come and be loud and proud and show that we exist and that we are in every part of Bristol's community.
02:45And we are the fabric of what makes Bristol great.
02:48And yeah, we shouldn't live in fear.
02:50We shouldn't have to worry about holding our partner's hands.
02:54We shouldn't have to worry about just walking down the street and facing verbal abuse.
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