Isle of Wight Pride announce 2nd year event – built on Visit Isle of Wight support
A date has been announced for IWPride 2018!!
“It was vital for our marketing, we really wanted to encourage people to come over to the Island from the mainland and increase the visibility to the Isle of Wight. Without the support of Visit Isle Of Wight it might not have been as successful, and we wouldn’t have been able to market it in the same way – up to a 1000 people come over from the mainland and it’s all thanks to Visit Isle of Wight – it’s really marketed the Isle of Wight in a fantastic way.
Since the event, I’ve seen same sex couple holding hands, which was never so obvious before – it really sells the Island as a destination to the LGBT community.”
Find out if your event qualifies for funding support from Visit Isle of Wight – just click the link!
image courtesy of Isle of Wight Pride
Joe said Team Pride was keen not to cause conflict with other events that bring visitors to the Island:
“It’s amazing to be planning for Pride2018 already. So many people are already supportive and on board. We were keen to avoid clashing with Rhythm tree festival on the Island again and are glad to be joining forces with the Ryde Slide! It should be another weekend to remember for the Island!”
“We were astounded by how successful Pride was in our first year. Pride2017 touched many lives, from people who had left the Island due to Homophobia, returning to a welcoming environment and being reduced to tears, through to courage and love enabling people to have the confidence to “come out” and be their true selves and live their lives.“We have had fantastic feedback from around the Country and want to grow our family friendly, inclusive and free community event in 2018 and have spent most of the summer putting the building blocks in place to help make this happen!”
“One of the main learning points from the success of 2017 was to get more volunteers involved. This has helped us to grow TeamPride and we are always open to other people joining us in organising this fabulous event. There may be more exciting news in late October, but we won’t be releasing those details at this stage. There is a great buzz around Pride since the amazing day in July when the Island community came together and created something special.“We want to recapture that atmosphere and grow it. We hope through the Pride Exhibition at Dimbola Museum and Galleries that the Island community get the chance to relive happy memories and also to give people the motivation to get involved in 2018.”
image courtesy of Isle of Wight Pride
With plans to increase the size of the arena, improve on the market stall and information stand zone and also maximise the opportunity for people to get involved and attend Pride, there will be much excitement in the build up to 2018. Pride organisers are already planning events for the Friday evening to compliment the main day.
image courtesy of Isle of Wight Pride