Bristol Pride Announces Plans for 2023

Bristol Pride have confirmed they will be heading back to The Downs next year. The Pride Day Festival will take place on Saturday 8 July 2023.

The festival will run from the 24 June - 9 July and with events to celebrate and showcase the LGBT+ community taking place across the city ahead of the Pride Day festival which moved to The Downs in 2019.

Record numbers again attended Bristol Pride in 2022 with over 19,000 taking part in the Parade March through the city centre whilst the main festival on the Downs saw 40,000 people attend with over 100 artists performing across 5 stages and headline set from international superstar Carly Rae Jepsen.

As well as announcing the dates for the festival the Bristol Pride team have also revealed that, for the first time, their Supporter Wristbands will be available early, from the Bristol Pride website from Friday 2 December. Bristol Pride explained this was a chance to allow for more active support towards the charity, help alleviate queues on the day and also gives the people the option of gifting wristbands as a fun, alternative present this festive season. 

Bristol Pride is one of the biggest Pride events in the UK and returned with a bang this year after 2 years of hybrid activity due to the pandemic. Organisers work to ensure that Pride Day remains donation entry so that those who might need Pride the most can still attend if they cannot afford it. However, as costs for the festival industry continue to increase, the charity are urging everyone who is able to, to purchase a Pride Supporter Wristband which start at just £7 and offer great rewards that will save you money, including free bus travel on Pride Day with any First Bus route in the Bristol Zone, dedicated Pride Shuttle Buses serving The Downs and money off drinks on the onsite bars at the festival. All of the money raised goes directly towards helping to keep Pride happening and keeping it an open event for everyone.

Bristol Pride is the only Pride event of its size to offer this to the public and is why it’s gaining a national reputation and one of the best Pride events in the UK and was named in the Global Top50 Pride events in 2019.

Bristol Pride Director, Daryn Carter, explains 
“Pride is about community at its core, we never want to make attending the parade or festival financially exclusive or inaccessible. I remember how important my first Pride was to me and I hold that close to my heart when planning the festival each year. Pride is something special and sadly many people still need the support and magic that Pride has to offer. So we are asking everyone that can afford to do so, to make sure they get a supporter wristband to help us to keep making Pride happen and continue to offer the support to those that might need Pride the most.

We also know people struggle at this time of year to find unique or special Christmas gifts, so we thought we’d make our wristbands available early as an option for people to gift one this year to support us as a charity, while also having something really exciting to look forward to in the new year - we’ve even designed a fun gift voucher for people to download.”

Although the lineup for 2023 is still firmly under wraps, the Bristol Pride team have promised they will be building on the continued growth of the festival with some really exciting headliners joining Main Stage on The Downs alongside incredible local artists and performers and stars from Ru Paul’s Drag Race UK and USA along with an incredible headline DJ set for the official afterparty at the O2 Academy.

The Parade March for 2023 will take place on Saturday 8 July and continues to be free for members of the public to join and participate in. Bookings for businesses, groups and charities wanting to book their place to march in next year's event are also now open.

Prior to the Festival Day the team have announced their two-week build up of events will run across venues in the city and will again feature highlights such as the Pride Dog Show, Theatre performances, Pride Comedy Night, meet-ups, workshops and more. 

Click here for all the latest news and to pick up supporter wristbands