Pride: Portsmouth bids to be the city that hosts UK Pride in 2025

The volunteers who run the Portsmouth group for the LGBTQ+ community are preparing a bid which will soon be submitted to the UK Pride Organisers Network (UKPON).

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The team will be working to prepare a full bid, in collaboration with local businesses and community organisations highlighting Portsmouth Pride’s achievements and ambitions.

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This will be reviewed by more than 130 Pride organisations who are members of UKPON – which includes Portsmouth Pride – who will have the opportunity to review the bid ahead of the annual UKPON conference in November.

At the conference, representatives of Portsmouth Pride will deliver a presentation to support the bid. Once that has been presented, the membership will vote for who they believe should host UK Pride for 2025.

Tally Aslam, the chair of Portsmouth Pride, says the city's Pride organisation is in a strong position to submit the bid.

She said: ‘We are extremely excited to announce that we are formally bidding to host UK Pride in Portsmouth in 2025, to celebrate 10 years of Portsmouth Pride, bringing the whole country’s attention to Portsmouth as a leading city for inclusivity. The title of UK Pride is awarded to a different town or city every year and we want to show the UK what Pride in Portsmouth looks like, and to bring a whole group of new visitors to the city as we secure our place as an LGBTQ+ seaside destination.

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‘Having the incredible team in place, plus our principle of being free and unfenced means we’re now in a really strong position to push ahead and develop our next two years of growth.’

The announcement of the bid took place at the Portsmouth Pride launch event at the Spinnaker Tower. The evening was an opportunity for members from across the community, including politicians and business owners, to come together to kick off the official countdown to the Portsmouth Pride Main Day event on June 10.

CP, the vice chair of Portsmouth Pride, said: ‘We have been overwhelmed by the support already given by businesses, political and civic leaders. As one of the biggest free, unfenced and community-focused Pride events in the country, we’d love to show the UK what we do so well in Portsmouth.’