Town's first pride event festival of 'inclusion'

A town will celebrate its first ever pride festival this summer, which its chair has said will be "wider than the LGBT community".

Windsor will host the inaugural Windsor and Eton Pride event on 26 July, with a pride march to take place through the town centre.

Chair Steve Harris said it would be a "festival of inclusion" where "disabilities, ethnicities and genders" would be be celebrated.

He added he wanted the event to be somewhere everyone could come to and be "themselves".

Speaking to Radio Berkshire, Mr Harris said accessibility would be an important part of the event, mainly taking place in Alexandra Gardens.

"It's a lot more than just an LGBT event... two of our trustees suffer from MS [multiple sclerosis] so we're designing a festival by disabled people and including them."

He said the festival had been in development for two years and organisers were still hoping for more support from people and local businesses.

"We're getting a lot of people behind it, ideally though we really need to push things," said Mr Harris.

The event's parade will travel down Long Walk on the "busiest" day in Windsor's calendar, he said, describing it as "daunting".

Windsor and Eton Pride's website states the event will be free but a ticket will still be required.

Reading will have its own pride festival on 24 August.

Plans for the town to host its second Disability Pride event in 2024 were cancelled after Reading Borough Council blamed "finance and staffing issues".

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