Southend Pride fundraising to ensure celebrations go ahead with free access
They want to keep events free and accessible to all
The organisers of Southend Pride are raising funds to ensure the annual celebration can go ahead this year.
Southend Pride is planned to take place on 16th July 2022, and organisers hope to make it as accessible as possible to the entire community through a policy of free entry to all events, including the main festival.
Chair of Southend Pride, Sam Adams, says accessibility is key to the event: "It's a community event, so you want the whole of the community to be able to take part.
"For a lot of people, if they're having to pay for these events, that excludes them because they don't have enough money, especially currently, a lot of people are struggling financially.
"So, to extend that inclusion to everyone, they have to be free events."
However, Sam says they have depleted finances for this year's festival, as they've been unable to carry out their usual fundraising efforts for two years due to the Covid pandemic: "Unfortunately with Covid, we've not been able to do any fundraising events over the past two years, so we've suffered from that.
"Similarly, a lot of businesses are struggling themselves, so sponsorships haven't been great this year either.
The organisation as a whole is non-profit and run entirely by volunteers, so they're now asking for donations from the public to ensure the event goes ahead as planned, and that as many people as possible can attend: "We have received some donations, which is amazing.
"We've also set up a crowd funder as well, so that individuals can give a few pounds - it all adds up!"
Southend Pride, this year, Sam says, is more important than ever, after two years of lockdowns: "I think it's really important because the community, because of Covid, have experienced isolation and haven't been able to get into safe spaces, and may have been in unsafe spaces because of lockdown.
"It's really important to be able to come to pride where it's a safe space where you can be yourself... it also provides a big boost for people's mental health."
Sam says the celebrations are shaping up nicely, and they've got lots planned. In particular, she's looking forward to the parade down Southend High Street: "Usually we get about 1000 people on the parade and there's lots of colour, lots of placards, lots of flags, lots of glitter.
"It's always a really good parade and it's nice because people come out of the shops and clap and cheer as we go past, so it's a really great atmosphere."