We at Pride in Surrey are deeply shocked and saddened by the recent revelations concerning our co-founder and a volunteer. Their actions are utterly appalling and in complete opposition to everything our organisation stands for. First and foremost, we want to be absolutely clear: these individuals do not represent the values of Pride in Surrey, nor do they reflect the wider LGBTQ+ community. One individual's criminal actions should never be used to tarnish an entire movement – especially not one so relentlessly focused on equality, safety, and support. For years, Pride in Surrey has stood as a literal lifeline for many LGBTQ+ people across the region – providing connection, education, and advocacy. That work continues. Our team of dedicated volunteers and community partners remains steadfast in our mission to celebrate diversity and ensure a safe and welcoming environment for all. In recent days, we have witnessed an alarming increase in hateful rhetoric directed not only at our organisation but at LGBTQ+ people more broadly. Many of these attacks are being pushed by anti-LGBTQ+ groups who are using this news to further an agenda rooted in fear, misinformation and hatred of our community. These claims are baseless, harmful, and entirely unsupported by evidence. It is especially disappointing that Surrey County Council has chosen to withdraw support from Pride in Surrey without engaging with us directly or producing any evidence whatsoever to support their view. Surrey Police have made it explicitly clear that there are no concerns with our organisation’s structure, people, or safeguarding policies. We operate with robust procedures in place and remain fully committed to the highest standards of safety, transparency, and accountability. To further reassure our community, stakeholders, and the public, we will be commissioning an independent review of our current safeguarding policies and systems. This review will be led by external professionals and its findings will be published in full once complete. We believe in accountability and continuous improvement, and we welcome any opportunity to demonstrate that we take our responsibilities very seriously and work tirelessly to deserve the trust placed in us. We are also going to introduced a publicly accessible complaints procedure on our website. Enabling our event visitors and service users to provide feedback and comments on our events, partners, suppliers and our volunteers. Despite the challenges, our community will come together again at Pride in Surrey in Guildford on 6 September - a celebration of resilience, visibility, and most of all, Pride. We invite everyone to join us in standing united against hate and in support of the vibrant and diverse LGBTQ+ community we all serve. Pride in Surrey has always been about creating a safe and supportive space, and we will not allow the actions of a few to derail the work and progress of many. Our community deserves better - and we will ensure they get it. We thank those who continue to support us. Our commitment to you remains unwavering. Pride in Surrey

Pride in Surrey are disappointed by Surrey County Council’s decision to not attend Pride in Surrey 2025 in Guildford. Since 2019, Surrey County Council (SCC) have had a presence at every Pride in Surrey event, in the form of an outreach stand to promote the council’s departments and services. This decision has not come as a surprise to us, in previous years SCC has scaled back on attending Pride. We worry that this decision may be part of a general movement within SCC to withdraw support and potential funding from Surrey’s LGBTQ+ community, a sentiment which many in our community have shared with us over recent years. At a time where LGBTQ+ organisations across the country are facing increased attacks, particularly against our trans community, this trend is troubling. Today, we have been inundated by emails and messages of support from staff within SCC, disappointed in their organisation’s decision. We are saddened for staff at SCC, as they have always been able to march in our parade and enjoy the day on behalf of SCC. We want to assure SCC staff that they are still welcome to attend and enjoy the day if they wish. In an email sent today to Pride in Surrey, SCC claim that Pride in Surrey is not representative of the whole LGBTQ+ community. This something we reject completely, and also something they have provided no evidence for. Not only do our members reflect every area of our LGBTQ+ community, including female and trans representation, we also work tirelessly year round to celebrate and represent everyone within our community. We pride ourselves on creating a welcoming event that brings together Surrey's LGBTQ+ community. Additionally, we do not believe it is the place of councils to tell queer organisations whether they are representative or not, and believe this sets a worrying precedent. To confirm, there has been no allocated funding to Pride this year from SCC. We haven't applied for any, we haven't asked for any. In the same way, there has been no event plans to include Surrey County Council this year at Pride. Our plans for Pride in Surrey 2025 remain unchanged. Date: 16/07/2025

Pride in Surrey are delighted to announce that wristbands to join this year's parade in Guildford are now available!

Last updated Wednesday 28th May, 2025 @ 12noon.

Pride in Surrey are excited to announce that this year’s Pride event will be taking place in Stoke Park, Guildford on Saturday 21st September. This year marks the fifth anniversary since Pride in Surrey’s very first Pride event in Woking back in 2019. Pride has come a long way in last five years, bringing annual events around the county, growing the event with every town visited. It's an exciting opportunity to bring the LGBTQ+ event to Guildford town for the first time. Pride in Surrey were in a fortunate position to be able to open a bidding process for the first time this year, after receiving a number of requests from different councils to bring Pride in Surrey to their towns. Charlie Watts, Chief Executive: "After much deliberation, we have decided that Guildford would be a great fit for our 2024 event. Pride in Surrey would like to thank all the councils who reached out to put themselves forward to host our event. I am so thrilled that we will be bringing Pride in Surrey to Guildford this year. It is a truly wonderful town and Stoke Park will make for a beautiful location for our event. Being the 5th anniversary of our first event, we hope to make this year’s event our biggest yet and encourage the people and organisations of Surrey to get involved to celebrate our community.” Cllr Julia McShane, Leader of the Council: “I am delighted that we have been able to work to bring Pride in Surrey to Guildford for its fifth anniversary year. Having attended a few of their celebrations around Surrey I know how valuable it will be for our LGBTQ+ communities to be seen, heard and celebrated here in Guildford. We very much look forward to 21st September and welcoming everyone to what will be a very colourful event in Stoke Park.” As in previous years, Pride in Surrey’s event will commence with a parade through Guildford town towards Stoke Park. The day itself will bring Stoke Park alive with a whole host of live music, highlighting amazing talent from Surrey and beyond, as well as food and drink, outreach stalls and much more. Cllr Catherine Houston, Portfolio Holder, Commercial Services: “Bringing Pride in Surrey to Guildford, the heart of Surrey, is incredibly exciting. On 21st September our town will be buzzing with colour, laughter and joy. It is important to let our LGBTQ+ communities know that they are valued and supported and this event reflects this message loud and clear. Additionally, we know that host towns are always thrilled with the effect that Pride in Surrey brings to their local economy and so we look forward to the financial boost Pride will bring to our local businesses, large and small.” The Pride in Surrey team are gearing up to share more details about this year’s event in the coming weeks. Tickets for the September event are now available via the Pride in Surrey website and are offered on a 'pay what you can basis' keeping Pride accessible for as many people as possible.

Pride in Surrey are thrilled to be included in the annual Kelly's Guildford 10K and 5K charity run raising funds for Pride in Surrey, organised in partnership with the University of Surrey Students' Union taking place in LGBT History Month.

For the first time, Pride in Surrey have opened a bidding process for Borough Councils to enter to host the 2024 event in their own towns. This year Pride was held in Reigate on September 9th and each year the event that attracts thousands of visitors moves around the county. The 2024 event will mark the organisations’ fifth Pride event. Charlie Watts, Pride in Surrey Chief Executive says, “Reigate this year was a huge success, it enabled us to grow our event and reach out to a different area of Surrey, each year we are getting bigger and bigger, and we already have the ball rolling for the next Pride”. Straight after Reigate, Pride received requests from three Surrey borough’s requesting Pride to be hosted in their towns. Because of this, Pride in Surrey have decided to open an official bidding process for Pride 2024, and if needed, Pride 2025. Charlie also said, “This is the first time we have been in this situation, but it’s great to see councils’ activity seeking to host Pride in their boroughs”. Pride in Surrey aims to announce the location of Pride 2024 before Christmas. For more Information on Pride 2024 and the bidding process, please click here.

Pride in Surrey are delighted to announce that this year's main Pride event will feature two full size stages for the first time. The new second stage will be a community stage, operated by our friends at Trans Radio UK. Trans Radio UK are based in Surrey and are the only trans radio station in the UK. The vast majority of their presenters and team are trans or non-binary and although predominately UK-based, members of their team are located around the world. They are a community radio station run by the community, for the community. "Trans Radio UK are excited to return to Pride in Surrey and this year we will be hosting the community stage for the first time. We have lined up some amazing people who will be performing as well as a couple of our own DJs. Some of our TRUK family will also be there managing our stall so come and say hello!" Lucy & Avril, founders of TRUK The whole community stage will be broadcast live on Trans Radio UK from midday until 7pm. The full event line-ups will be announced soon.

To celebrate Pride Month 2023, Thorpe Park have announced a whole range of LGBTQ+ products, which incorporate all parts of our diverse community. In addition, Thorpe Park have pledged to donate 15% of all of the proceeds to Pride in Surrey, to help us put on our upcoming event in Reigate this September, as well as serve the LGBTQ+ community all year round. Thorpe Park have been close supporters of Pride in Surrey for several years now. We were delighted to visit Thorpe Park on our whistle-stop tour of the county, during Pride on the Road 2021. Last year they supported us once again, donating the proceeds of their Pride pin badges to Pride in Surrey. We are delighted to see this relationship grow and hope that this continues in the future!