London Gatwick once again led the Community Parade at Brighton Pride festival over the weekend, as more than 300,000 people participated in the city-wide celebration of diversity in the community.
For the second year in a row as a sponsor of the event’s Community Parade, Gatwick’s branded bus led the parade through the city alongside 150 members of staff from the airport.
The lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender queer and others (LGBTQ+) community event has become the UK’s biggest Pride festival and this year’s theme was ‘Colour My World’, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the rainbow flag’s original eight colours of pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet, representing: sexuality, life, healing, sun, nature, art, harmony and spirit.
As the number of international visitors to Brighton Pride has continued to grow over recent years, so too has Gatwick’s long haul route network, which currently provides 67 long haul routes to and from countries as diverse as China, the USA, Argentina, Canada, South Africa, Dubai and Hong Kong.
Brighton Pride is also just one of a wide variety of local events Gatwick has sponsored this summer, having also partnered with: the Brighton Marathon Weekend, The Big Bang STEM Fair in Ardingly, Crawley High Street Live, Horley Carnival and Gatton Park Fair.
Gatwick also demonstrated its support for Pride by changing the profile images across all of its widely followed social media channels, to reflect the Pride Rainbow flag.
Gatwick Airport’s Head of Community Engagement, Alison Addy, said:
“Gatwick enjoys close links with the Brighton community and as one of the largest employers in the region we are excited to celebrate the diversity that reflects our workforce and our local community.
“As an organisation Pride plays an important role bringing together both the local community and the wider LGBTQ+ community and we are proud that it forms such a prominent part in Gatwick’s community engagement programme.”
