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

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.

June is Pride Month and Pride in Surrey have a full calendar of events for the community. From trans sober socials to safe spaces at local festivals; we have something for everyone to get involved in. Our Pride Hub in Woking will be hosting a number of workshops and social groups, plus we've even teamed up with some local pubs to bring a great Pride night out! Celebrate Pride Month with Pride in Surrey! Share your celebrations online using hashtag #PrideinSurrey

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!

Pride in Surrey have been significantly impacted by the fire at the Byfleet, Access self storage facility. Losing many sentimental and operational items to the fire a Just Giving campaign is in place raising money for Pride in Surrey during this challenging time. This post features the latest update regarding the fire and the items they have lost.

**Update: 22nd May: following the resurgence of the fire throughout the weekend, Access has informed clients that the site is a ”total loss” - furthermore Surrey Fire & Rescue has tweeted that the site will be demolished. Pride in Surrey are not expecting to recover anything from the site. Whilst insurance will cover some of the items stored, some will not be covered. We are also preparing for a lengthy claims process, which could complete too close or after Pride in September. Due to this shortfall, we have increased our funding target to a more realistic snapshot of what has been lost. We aim to publish an overview of what has been lost and values on our website within 48 hours. We would like to thank everyone who has supported us on our journey of rebuilding what we once had. — May 18th we were notified about the fire at Access Storage in Byfleet by one of our volunteers who lives locally. We have stored outreach and event equipment at Access for many years. The unit housed lots of sentimental items that form our history, along with most of our assets that reduce the cost of Pride year-on-year. With thanks to efforts of Surrey Fire & Rescue and Surrey Police, the fire was finally put under control after burning for more than 15 hours. We are now left in a extremely difficult position. We are yet to receive updates from Access themselves and from the images of the incident we are bracing ourselves for total loss. Although we are yet to find out the full extent of the damage caused to our equipment and items, most of the items are not resistant to smoke or water, let alone fire. We are estimating the loss of our beloved wooden giant desk chairs, staging, banners, furniture, communication equipment.. the list goes on. It was a large storage room full to the brim with essential items that we rely on regularly. Whilst we should be able to recover part of the loss through insurance, sentiment items that formed Surrey's LGBTQ+ Pride's history will be lost. We anticipate a painful and lengthy claims process. We have lots of outreach events planned for Pride Month in June, along with opening a new pop-up Pride Hub in Redhill. All of which will be extremely difficult to do without access/having any of our equipment. Our plan is to act now, to start replacing essential items, throughout Pride Month. Please support this fund where you can. Every penny really does help. Things may be gone, but our spirit and Pride will continue. Thank you!