Even with the Olympics last year the Pride Organizers had problems securing funds. Now that 2013 has came and we are deep into where funds would be needed to secure a pride festival or march and volunteers there does not seem to be anything moving in the right direction. The London LGBT+ Community Pride was awarded the right to run the festival for the next five years in a grant worth over £650,000 for the full duration and in October London Mayor Boris Johnson invited non-profit community based groups to submit bids to run the event in the wake of last years financial failure of World Pride.
Although if you check out the Twitter for @pridelondon and Facebook/pridelondon you will see the page(s) are no longer working and not available. Why would they take away the Twitter and Facebook if they are trying to get volunteers and support for such a huge event? This is absurd and should be unacceptable to the donors. We hope that London gays can come together and save pride but it seems the organizers are doing something majorly wrong especially closing down their means of communication which is social media. The PrideLondon.org site also has nothing about the dates or events or contact information to volunteer.
We emailed the owner of G-A-Y Nightclub in London and had no response over this hoping that he may have some insight. We also spoke to a representative at Al and Chuck Travel and they are saying it may well be canceled.
World Pride had to be heavily scaled back after the organisers, Pride London, were forced to admit to a cash crisis just days before it was due to take place. The Pride London’s chair Dr Patrick Williams resigned as a result of the fiasco in the same month. The Chairman of London LGBT+ Community Pride, Michael Salter said: “With such a short lead time this year we need the community and its supporters to really get behind Pride – to show the spirit that we saw last year when record numbers of people took part in the parade in reaction to the threat to Pride’s survival. Although we are confident in our planning it is true that if we are unable to secure the funding and volunteers that we need to deliver a safe Pride – one that showcases the best of our community – we may have to cancel the event for 2013.”
Many people don’t appreciate the scale of Pride; it is the third biggest annual event in London, it is the only parade that closes Oxford Street, Regent Street and Shaftesbury Avenue as 40,000 people march and nearly a million people pass through the footprint of the event. Organization of something on this scale doesn’t come cheaply and depends on volunteers. So they are calling on potential sponsors and donors and on willing volunteers to step forward and work with to make London and the LGBT community proud.
The GLA are providing up to £150,000 to support this year’s event but at least a further £280,000 is needed to put on the show. The theme for Pride in London in 2013 has been announced as “Love (and Marriage)” to reflect the expected passage of equal marriage legislation this summer.
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