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The Pride London Festival is a two week arts festival incorporating hundreds of exhibitions, film screenings, sporting events, concerts, theatre, comedy and cabaret performances, as well as special galas and one-off parties, all aimed at raising awareness on Gay and Lesbian issues.

The Pride London Parade is the culmination of the Pride London Festival and takes place on a Saturday at the end of June/start of July, drawing massive crowds who come to enjoy the revelry that is unique to this festival. Crowds numbering in excess of half a million head into central London to enjoy the spectacular parade floats and performers. This is Europe’s largest gay and lesbian festival and it lives up to that billing!

The Pride London Festival Parade leaves Baker Street/Orchard Street in the afternoon and heads down Oxford Street and Regent Street, the busiest shopping streets in town. The Parade goes through Piccadilly Circus and on to Trafalgar Square where there is Rally, and ends in Whitehall.

Following on from the parade, the afternoon is for entertainment at Trafalgar Square with key speakers, a bit of politics, and a lot of music and dancing.

Now in its 36th year of annual celebrations, the Pride London Festival has changed with the times: same sex couples can now marry in civil partnerships and other homophobic laws have been abolished. Pride London, the organizer, is a registered charity and aims to produce a highly professional Pride Festival and an annual Pride Day comprising a Parade through central London, a politically-based Rally and free entertainment in central London. Their mission is to raise awareness for the LGBT community and they aim to promote equality and diversity through all of its campaigns.