Pride director praises 'hugely successful weekend'

Thousands of people lined the route of the Pride community parade on Saturday morning

The organisers of Brighton Pride have praised a "hugely successful weekend", despite issues with entry to some of the events.

About 300,000 people flocked to the city for the celebrations, which included the Community Parade, Street Party in Marine Parade and Pride on the Park in Preston Park.

Performers included five-time Grammy Award winner Mariah Carey on Saturday and Sugababes on Sunday.

Paul Kemp, managing director of Brighton Pride, said: "The overarching feeling I got was that people were having a fantastic time, that they love the events we put on and they love the city during pride."

Mariah Carey headlined the first night of the event, while the Sugababes closed out the show on Sunday evening

However, some attendees complained about the entry arrangements on Saturday, which prompted an apology from organisers regarding "longer than expected wait times" to enter the events.

Mr Kemp said changes were made for the Sunday events.

"It didn't work as well as we'd hoped," Mr Kemp said.

"We have to acknowledge it didn't work and we have to really look at that."

Mariah Carey performed on Saturday as part of the event

But he labelled the event a "hugely successful weekend" overall, with Carey's performance receiving praise from attendees.

Varun P, who flew from India for the Pride on the Park performances, said Carey was the "queen of music" and said she "delivered beyond expectations".

'A disaster'

The decision to move the Street Party from St James's Street to Marine Parade had been the subject of concern by residents and businesses.

Among those to have opposed the change was the Kemptown Residents Association, whose founder Diane Messias argued that such a resident area was "completely unsuitable to be a party venue".

She told BBC Radio Sussex: "This started on Thursday night when I had no sleep, because between 23:30 and 01:30 in the morning they were heavy lifting the barriers from St James Street into place, but they were doing it from Marine Parade. It's days and nights of upheaval."

Responding to the alleged issues of overcrowding at the Street Party, local resident Diane - who left Brighton for the weekend - said the association "predicted" it would happen.

"We predicted that leaving St James Street open just to see what happened would be a disaster, as it was," she said.

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