Brighton Pride cancelled for second consecutive year due to ‘uncertainties’ around mass gatherings

LGBTQ+ festival had been scheduled to take place in August

Attendees at Brighton Pride in 2019 (Getty Images)

Brighton Pride has been cancelled for a second year running due to the pandemic.

The LGBTQ+ festival was due to return on 7 and 8 August 2021 after last year’s event was pulled.

However, in a statement shared on their website on Wednesday (5 May) morning, festival organisers said that they were “heartbroken” to have to cancel the event again.

“Delivering Pride requires an all year-round planning cycle working closely with our partner agencies and, while the vaccine rollout continues to be successful, the many uncertainties that need to be resolved to safely deliver mass gatherings and the complexities of organising Pride in our City are impossible to achieve in the time we have, so based on the best information available to us at this time we are heartbroken to have to cancel for a second year,” the statement read.

“We cannot risk the health and safety of Pride visitors, residents and the hundreds of staff and volunteers that help deliver Pride.”

Current ticketholders will be able to roll their tickets over to 2022, apply for a refund or donate the cost to the Brighton Rainbow Fund.

The announcement follows on from a report that more than a quarter of UK music festivals have already been cancelled this summer due to a lack of coronavirus-specific insurance.