Brighton & Hove Pride
About This Event
Brighton & Hove Pride is the UK's biggest Pride outside London, and it suits the town it happens in: Brighton has been Britain's gay seaside capital for decades, and Kemptown's bars and B&Bs are its everyday scene. Pride weekend combines a free community parade, a big ticketed music festival and a street party, and the town is packed from the seafront to the station.
The Saturday Community Parade is the free part. It leaves from Hove Lawns, comes along the seafront, climbs West Street and Queens Road, and continues via North Road and London Road to Preston Park. There, Pride on the Park runs for two days with big-name main-stage headliners, dance tents and cabaret, and it is ticketed. Kemptown's Pride Village Party around St James's Street keeps going all weekend. Brighton Pride is a not-for-profit community interest company, and ticket money covers the costs of the parade and the village, with the rest going to local LGBTQ+ groups through the Rainbow Fund and other grant pots.
That model is the source of the arguments. In 2026, standard park tickets ranged from about £45 to £350, with discounted tickets for local residents, and critics again called it too commercial and too expensive. Organisers reply that an event this size cannot happen without sponsorship and ticket income. The money is genuinely tight: a council review recorded a substantial loss in 2023, after bad weather and cancelled trains, and the council wants to recover all of its costs from 2026 onwards. The pattern is the first weekend of August. Hotels sell out and prices jump, so book early and check for rail engineering works.
The latest edition ran from 1 to 3 August 2026 and marked the 35th year, with RAYE headlining the Saturday at Preston Park, Diana Ross making her Brighton Pride debut on the Sunday, and RuPaul playing a DJ set. The organisers estimated about 300,000 people would join or watch the parade, and expected up to 450,000 across the city that weekend; there was no independent count. The 2027 dates hadn't been announced when we checked.
Where to stay during Brighton & Hove Pride
via Stay22Schedule & Sub-Events
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Check the official website for the latest programme.
Videos
Brighton Pride Parade 2026 | Celebrating Love in the UK’s LGBTQ+ Capital
