A new anti-terror law which puts stringent safety requirements on the organisers of ticketed events is one of the main reasons the village party is being moved, a Pride organiser said last night.
Paul Kemp, managing director of Brighton and Hove Pride, told a packed meeting at St Mary’s Church Hall that Martyn’s Law, which came into force this month, would put unworkable legal obligations on anyone closing off St James’s Street.
The meeting was held in the wake of the council announcing the official Pride Village Party, which has been held on St James’s Street for many years, will be moving to Marine Parade this year, which has angered both venues and residents.
But Mr Kemp said dwindling ticket sales and the chance of a legal challenge from residents or businesses within the party zone meant “change has to happen”.
He said: “We are not here to stop the party. But I can’t stand here and say with the new legislation that’s coming in, Martyn’s Law, that it can carry on in the same way.
“It probably hasn’t been delivered in the way we want.
“When people come into our city for Pride there’s a lot of LGBTQ people wanting to go to an event that’s supporting LGBTQ and what Pride is about.
“Some of the people who come into St James’s Street aren’t about that.
“If you want to provide a safe space, from Pride’s point of view we have to navigate a way forward. Change has to happen.
“We want something that will go into the future and be sustainable, supported by Pride. That’s something that’s very personal to me.”
Brighton and Hove City Council’s outdoor events manager, Ian Baird, apologised to venue operators at the meeting for the “massive failure” in not informing them about the move before it was announced, saying he had been told they had been kept in the loop.
He said the council and Pride were continuing to meet with police to develop safety and security plans, which would have to be approved “at a national level” – and it’s possible their plans could be overruled.
At present, he said the plan is to monitor St James’s Street on the day and to close it either to traffic or to move on revellers if it becomes too crowded.
He said: “If thousands of people descent on that street, what infrastructure do we need?
“It’s not about us listening to a single voice. It’s about us looking at legal frameworks. There’s massive pressure on the whole city across the weekend.”
One local resident, Ed Parry, said the new plan was being sold as a way to get people away from St James’s Street, but in practice would have the opposite effect.
He said: The thing that’s bonkers is that we have taken away all the safety measures from St James’s Street, but encouraged people to go to St James’s Street.”
Chris Marshall from the Charles Street Tap said: “Admissions to A&E dropped dramatically after you brought in ticketed entry in 2014, so it seems very naive, the things I’m hearing.
“You are going to open up the area. This is the heart of the LGBTQ community in Brighton. People are coming here for the bars but more importantly it’s now free. YUou are not controlling it any more, you are just allowing people to come in.
“It doesn’t seem like you are making a safe space.”
It sounds as if they’ve decided to use this years event as an experiment to see what happens if you move the official event and then leave St. James’s Street without any safety measures. Strange plan.
They know what happens when there isn’t a proper safety plan.
It’s was why the the street was closed off in the first place. Too many people, not enough security / police, no toilets.
The council are saying its because of the new MARTYN’S LAW which has not even came into effect yet to protect events from a terrorist attack. So the Parade, Preston Park straight music festival, and the councils corporate event excluding the vast majority of local LGBT+ venues will be heavily protected with barriers and lorries blocking roads. But the councils plan assumes people will attend the marine parade event instead but we won’t we will still go to St James Street free party.( especially since Preston Park costs £106 this year so i for one won’t be going). The council intends to keep roads around St James Street open so the council is creating a easy target for terrorists.
Plus the street was fenced off due to safety concerns with overcrowding, litter especially glass, and human waste. With a uncontrolled event which will go on all night all these problems will return.
The problem is the council employees such as Ian Baird who is in charge of outdoor events do not know the history of why the street had to be fenced off. Not only that he is excluding the LGBT+ community venues the Pride event is for.
I can see by comments on this article an others that whatever happens someone is going to be annoyed.
The long and short of it all is that it has grown out of all proportion from when it first began. If you were to invent this event now it would not even be considered in a town of this size. It hangs in there because it is part of our recent heritage and remains part of the dna of Brighton. However there has to be som compromise!
Preston Park is now a music festival with little to do with Pride and costs £106, St James street party is still connected to Pride. On the day the council is going to get the police to clear St James street thus totally cutting off our venues. Ian Baird is creating a situation that could get out of control and creating a easy target for an attack.
Cancel it all together. Make pride 1 night and don’t have the kemp town party or concerts at Preston park.
Hahaha – yeah – riiiiiiight
Street drinking should be banned during Pride in Kemptown. Why on earth when there is an over crowding issue are the normal street drinking bans lifted for the village party. If the place becomes overcrowded or is not kept clean in 2026 the numbers for pride need to be severely cut. One day only and the numbers reduced. There should be a charge on Preston Park tickets to pay also for crowd management and the clean up. A football match would not be allowed to take place and be run like this so the police, council and pride organisers need to make sure residents are not living in an out of control live events venue.
Firstly, banning street drinking of alcohol would be a complete impossibility when the whole event attracts up to 200,000 people. How can something like that ever be policed and monitored with limited resources from the council, with over 200,000 people over the weekend? This would be a practical impossibility. Secondly, you can’t stop people travelling from around the country and the world from attending Brighton over Pride weekend, and monitoring who attends Pride and who doesn’t would be another impossibility. Thirdly, there IS a charge for both the Party in the Park AND a charge for the street party, which goes towards crowd management and the clean-up. Pride weekend is arguably the most lucrative weekend of the year for both LGBTQ+ communities and indeed, Brighton as a whole (hotels swell, restaurants swell). Tourism in general is at the heart of what Brighton is – a seasonal tourist destination spot. Turning people away would be fruitless and damaging to MANY businesses, and to everyone concerned.
This whole idea is ridiculous. Inviting venues to have their own pop up tents on Marine parade instead of their own premises is utterly absurd. If it is to do with “Martyn’s Law” then that is just being used as an excuse. A sizeable majority of people will just want to have a drink and enjoy the bars in and around St. James’s street rather than pay a ridiculously inflated ticket price to drink beer at ridiculously inflated prices out of a can at pop up tent!
Not only is this going to seriously affect the businesses, it will ultimately and adversely affect residents as well.
Saying the situation will be monitored and people moved on or the road closed is a bit like shutting the door after the horse has bolted. Moving people on… so are the Police drafting in extra riot police to herd those who actually (and legally) want to gather in St. James’s street. (Unless I’m mistaken, we don’t live in a totalitarian state and it is still legal to gather in public places.) Has no one risk assessed the possibility of a madman driving up St. James’s street mowing everyone down because this year it’s going to be left undefended against any possible terror attack?
I’m sorry, but Brighton & Hove council and the pride organisation need to give their heads a serious wobble and abandon this utterly stupid idea. You have both got it very, very wrong!
Strange that the police were not in attendance at the meeting maybe they hadn’t been invited ?
Mr Kemp said dwindling ticket sales were a problem; perhaps he shouldn’t have increased the prices so much and then covertly added rip-off booking fees. Last year it cost £25 to get in, and then we were charged £8-9 per pint. Bars were charged £3000 for security, on top of having extra staff, being paid double time.
PAUL KEMP needs to move on he has made Preston Park into a straight music festival basically a corporate event. £106 for a weekend pass with expensive drinks and food on top with next to no local business taking part.With only a token £2 towards our charities. Now he is saying St James street can’t carry on due to dwindling ticket sales etc. He wants to make it like the over priced straight Preston park event. If anything should go its Preston park them concentration can be put into St James street and make it PRIDE again. He says about the problems with closing St James street but the same happens with streets leading to Preston park.The fact PAUL KEMP is working with the council to remove Pride away from most of our venues shows he has lost his way and the meaning of pride.
Very well said 👍
As a resident, no issue at all with the Pride village party!
But as in recent years Charles street should be limited to residents access only as it’s directly between the Brighton Tap and Pattern’s where the stage is set up!
Hence those not wanting to buy a ticket try to go down to gate crash the party music event!
Limiting the party to Madeira drive can work but the side roads need to be closed during the weekend to anyone except residents and emergency services i.e. emergency service need to be able to get closed to the stricken and evacuate them quickly!
Having hundreds of people in the way down the side streets will hinder saving lives potentially!