About

Southend Pride is a voluntary, non profit organisation which brings LGBTQ+ Pride to Southend, celebrating and promoting diversity.
We began in 2017, a small group of dedicated individuals who built and worked together to produce Southend’s first LGBTQI Pride in the Summer of 2018.  The response from the community was overwhelming, with an estimated 750+ marching through central Southend, and 4,500 attending the Festival. The following year was bigger and better, with 1,000+ in the Parade, and 5,000 at the Festival.

 The Festival is a family friendly, fully inclusive, relaxed afternoon of live entertainment on stage, a children’s tent with fun, games and stories,  a health & wellbeing tent, community stalls, food and drink, and local traders offering different and quirky goods. It is always a day of colour, frivolity, joy, politics, passion, and pride!

 In addition to the Parade and Festival we run a programme of arts, culture, literature and music in the week prior to the big day. These Fringe Events include poetry, comedy, cabaret, film, health & wellbeing, multi faith church, alternative music, and a youth specific event. To name but a few!

 We also run events throughout the year. Every February we run our Winter Pride, a smaller, indoor version of our Summer Festival, with community stalls, independent small traders, live performances and workshops.We produce a monthly cabaret show at The Cliff Pub (Southend’s only LGBTQ+ exclusive venue), and work with our sponsors, partners and supporters to raise the awareness and visibility of the LGBTQ+ community through events such as LGBT+ History Month, International Women’s Day, Black History Month, International Transgender Remembrance Day, and many more.

 As a not for profit organisation, our funding comes from our own fundraising events, small grants, donations from supportive organisations, and sponsorship from local businesses. 

It’s also important to remember that Southend Pride is organised and run by volunteers, who give up their time and energy, often in addition to their own full time job.

In addition to all our events we also offer LGBTQ+ Awareness Training for local businesses and organisations. These sessions are costed on a sliding scale to allow smaller organisations to benefit from the training. 

 Recently, we launched Southend Youth Pride as our partner group. We want to provide a safe and inclusive space for 11-18 year olds at a time when LGBTQ+ bullying and abuse of young people is increasing. We know that not being accepted and respected often leads to mental health issues, so we hope Youth Pride will be a safety net, allowing young people to create friendships and their own support networks. Youth Pride will also organise and run their own events and be an integral part of Southend Pride.

 We believe Southend Pride’s impact on the town and surrounding areas has helped to create a thriving, viable, inclusive and safe space for the LGBTQI community and its allies.We are a community and political organisation, celebrating diversity and inclusion, and we welcome all those who respect and support the LGBTQI community.

 For full details of Southend Pride and Youth Pride events, or to get involved, please follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Youth Pride has its own separate pages and are looking for volunteers etc to build on their initial launch.

Southend Pride will have a new website coming soon...

More details will be revealed soon...