Pride comes before a fall, as the organisers of the 2011 event have now found.
Controversy surrounded plans for the first ever paid-for Pride party in Preston Park and when the takings appeared to just about limp over the 30,000 attendance target, organisers breathed a sigh of relief.
But as revealed exclusively in The Argus, Pride South East still owes £180,000 to debtors and did not manage to give a penny to charity.
There were fears the annual celebration of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) culture was dead in the water until a rival bid by a group calling itself Pride Brighton and Hove was launched.
Crunch meeting
At a crunch council meeting next week former Pride trustee Geoffrey Bowden, now city council cabinet member for recreation and tourism, will choose between a bid from the 2011 organisers and the new contenders, who have formed a community interest company.
The council says it needs to make a decision by early March for the event to go ahead.
The new bid contains a pledge that £1 from every ticket sold will go to charity and that any profits will go to support the LGBT community, but its plans for the event are a carbon copy of the 2011 event. This includes charges for entry to Preston Park.
Pride is much more than an annual celebration for the LGBT community. It is increasingly a shop window for Brighton and Hove, attracting thousands of people to the city and encouraging national media attention.
It is a celebration that is growing in scope and popularity year on year, and discussions on how it is run affect all of us.
But who is canvassing the views of those people? Who is asking what Brighton and Hove wants from one of the most important events in its calendar?
The events that make up Pride have grown organically over the years but there should be a conversation over whether the way we celebrate is still fit for purpose.
Better locations?
Is Preston Park, for example, the best place to host the party?
With after-parties taking place across the city, as well as the traditional St James’s Street party, it means drunken revellers making their way along residential streets to get back into the centre, with resulting noise and mess.
Would it be better to base all the celebrations in the centre – perhaps with Madeira Drive closed off throughout the day?
Residents around St James’s Street have been voicing their concerns for years over the anti-social behaviour they say is associated with a minority of people at the annual street party.
A celebration that started off as a small event has ballooned into one of the core elements of Pride, but should the city now be looking at a different venue?
The choice between just two potential organisers – one of whom is laden with debt – is disappointing.
Community values
This is a huge city-wide event and needs to be handled by people who have experience in managing major events but who will not lose sight of the community values that are at the heart of Pride.
This is not to say that Pride Brighton and Hove, formed by the owners of Club Revenge and the editor of GScene magazine, does not fit these criteria. But it would be preferable if the council was presented with greater choice.
We are told a decision must be made in the next few weeks to ensure Pride takes place in September.
Might it not be better to miss one year and launch Pride 2013 after properly researching what the city wants and how best to deliver it?
Commenters on The Argus website clearly think there is plenty of scope for discussion.
Rita said: “It would appear that many of us have lost interest in Pride because we have forgotten what the real purpose of Pride is.
"The ‘owners’ of Pride have allowed this event to become an alcohol and drug-fuelled party without any other purpose.
“I suspect that the Revenge/Gscene co-management could effectively correct this recent mismanagement and attempt to again educate and raise awareness within all public domains – brain cells permitting.”
Voiceofthescoombe said: “Well if the people running it are actual business people who have run successful ventures before it might have a hope. How hard is it to put a party on in a park?”
Btnladbn2 said: “It’s had its day, let it go... As a gay guy in Brighton, I don’t know anyone who goes to Pride apart from people from out of town.
"The amount of money that has been thrown at this organisation is a joke and the lack of money that it’s brought in is even less.
“This whole thing makes the community in Brighton look stupid and incapable.
“Just close the book and call it the end.”
There will never be complete agreement over the future direction of Pride and even the best laid plans will never completely secure such an unpredictable challenge.
But it is only right the home of Pride is given the chance to influence its future.
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