by Lynette Alice

Created on: April 18, 2009

England is a nation which has numerous Gay Pride events, but there is a small handful which stand out above the crowd. It can be difficult to say what event is the best or conversely the worst as people have different tastes, but bu taking a look at how long events have run, the number of activities, and the feedback of attendees you can get an idea of which ones are doing well. In no particular order the following Gay Pride events in England seem to be the best.

London Gay Pride is certainly one of the biggest if not the biggest, not just in England mind you, but globally. Drawing in the neighborhood of some 825,000 in 2008 this is a monstrous event that draws people from all walks of life, ethnicities, and a strong dose of heterosexual people as well that support their LGBT friends and family. Having kicked off in 1972, London Pride is now a registered charity with nearly all the profits going to benefit local programs to better serve the LGBT community. In fact the London Pride steward system has become the adopted model for many Pride events around the world as being the smoothest most effective way to manage the parade and events. London Pride is more than just a parade hosting cultural and sporting events as well as debates for two weeks leading up to the parade. For anyone with the ability to partake, London Pride is an event that should be experienced firsthand.

Manchester Pride is usually a ten day event that culminates with the parade. Not usually as big as London Pride, it is still wildly popular and usually held in late August to avoid direct competition with other pride events in England. What Manchester Pride does as well as any Pride in England is raise money for LGBT charities have raked in just over 105 thousand pounds in 2008. Manchester Pride offers a little bit of everything form cultural events to entertainment and for many is actual their favorite of all England's Pride event. It is not as crowded as London, and while it draws some celebrities they usually aren't quite the caliber London draws. Still, Manchester Pride is generally considered the second best of England's Pride celebrations and has continued to grow each year.

The Brighton and Hove "Pride Beside the Seaside" is a bit different from most pride events, mostly because it is more commercially driven than the others. Even though it doesn't have the same community feel or really big draw it is something different to experience. They host what they call "Winter Pride" in March, follow it up with a Pride companion dog show in early July, with the Pride Carnival running from the last week of July to early August. While the scheduling of events is a little odd to many and this isn't a big local event, but one seemingly designed more towards bringing money into the local economy from tourists, it doesn't have the same feel of others but is still unique enough to make it worth visiting every now and then.

Brighton Pride is decent enough but not nearly he draw of London or Manchester. Likewise Leicester Pride has not really existed in awhile and has been replaced by a more politically correct "Celebrate" series of events more focused on total cultural diversity rather than a specific period of recognition for LGBT people although the committee operating the event is the same that used to oversee their Gay Pride. As a result the attendance has dwindled and this is rarely considered a true gay Pride event anymore. There are several local Pride events spread throughout the rest of the country but for anyone looking for a truly spectacular time, London and Manchester are really the only choices.

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