A record breaking crowd of 25,000 attended UK Black Pride: Power, Europe’s largest celebration for African, Asian, Middle Eastern, Latin American and Caribbean-heritage LGBTQI+ people.

In fact UK Black Pride is now officially the largest Black Pride in the World!

The event was held on 14 August in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park Stratford, having previously taken place in Haggerston Park, Hackney in 2019, with an attendance of 10,000. Due to Covid UK Black Pride took place online in 2020 and 2021.

Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz said on her social media:

“I’ll always stand with you in solidarity as your Mayor of Newham.”

The theme for UK Black Pride was Power. In a blog post released on the UK Black Pride website, Phyll Opoku-Gyimah, Executive Director and Co-Founder of UK Black Pride writes:

“We honour the power our communities continue to wield to ensure that our communities are defended and supported, loved and protected.”

The event featured community-focused groups/organisations stalls such as Newham based she.her.they.them, food and drink areas, workshops, wellbeing area, DJ tent and 50 performers on stage including Emeli Sande and Beyoncé Experience. The headliner was Dréya Mac, who has 74 million likes on TikTok and received a ‘Music Artist to Watch’ nomination from GUAP magazine, the Home of Emerging Creatives.

During her closing speech Phyll Opoku-Gyimah was joined on stage by the UK Black Pride team and activist Ted Brown, who was present at the UK’s first Pride march in 1972.

A mission statement on their website said:

“UK Black Pride is a safe space to celebrate diverse sexualities, gender identities, cultures, gender expressions and backgrounds and we foster, represent and celebrate Black LGBTQI+ and QTIPOC culture through education, the arts, cultural events and advocacy. Importantly, UK Black Pride promotes unity and cooperation among LGBTQI+ people of diasporic communities in the UK, as well as their friends and families.”

https://www.ukblackpride.org.uk

https://www.shehertheythem.com

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