Brighton Pride has unveiled the changes it hopes will allow it to survive a £50,000 deficit.
Proposals put out for consultation include scrapping the Winter Pride week, withdrawing funding from community groups looking to hold Pride week events and cutting dance tents and the funfair in the park event in favour of a ‘Community Heart of the Park’.
Pride trustees hope these moves will allow them to focus much more on the Pride Parade, with additional resources to improve the artistic quality of the parade and also reconnect with the local gay community both during the summer Pride Week festival and at the park event.
The proposals follow a period of crisis for the organisation brought about by a £50,000 shortfall in funding due to lower than expected fundraising and sponsorship for the 2009 event. Trustees hope that if the proposals are met with general community approval they will be able to put Pride back on a stable financial footing. They could then revisit some of the changes in future and possibly reinstate elements such as the funding of community groups.
Pride’s Chief Executive Lesley Burn told PinkPaper.com that all the proposed changes were in response to concerns raised by the community:
“We’ve listened, listened and listened. When the Pride trustees and staff met this week we had absolutely everything on the table for discussion and these proposals are a reaction to what we think people are telling us.
“In terms of not providing financial support to LGBT community groups, we aim to support them with expertise and in-kind support so they can still run their events but just giving them £100 that we don’t have doesn’t necessarily help that much and often these groups are more financially viable than we are.
“By changing the format of the park event in favour of the ‘community heart of the park’ concept we want to bring the event back to who it’s for, trying to bring everyone back together in an entertainment area where people can sit down, have a picnic, listen to live music, cabaret or choirs alongside community stalls, talks etc.
“No decisions have been made and we’re listening. We’ve got two weeks of community consultation with a questionnaire about the proposals on our website. If 100,000 people tell us we’ve got it wrong then we’ll go back to the drawing board.”
To view and comment on the proposals visit www.brightonpride.org.