EuroPride unveils gay parade route
EuroPride 06 today unveiled the final route for the major parade taking place through the streets of London on Saturday 1 July.
The EuroPride parade is expected to be one of the biggest London has ever seen, and will feature 40 floats, around 200 costumed groups and walking bands, and thousands of individual paraders.
The parade assembles on Baker Street at 1230pm and departs a 1pm, then makes its way along Oxford Street to Oxford Circus turning right down Regent Street to Piccadilly Circus. From here the route moves on to Trafalgar Square then along Whitehall to pass the Houses of Parliament before dispersing along Victoria Embankment.
EuroPride Day will then continue with the Trafalgar Square Rally (3pm-7pm), Virgin Mobile Cabaret Stage in Leicester Square (4pm-6pm), and the all-day Soho Party.
EuroPride Chief Executive Jason Pollock said: “EuroPride Day will be a celebration of Europe’s gay and lesbian community, and an opportunity for people from all walks of life and visitors from around the world to come together to enjoy a carnival atmosphere and festival of diversity.
“This is expected to be one of the biggest parades London has ever seen, and we are delighted that the parade will for the first time feature the capital’s world famous shopping streets of Oxford Street and Regent Street.”
The full line-up of floats for the July 1 parade was also revealed to the public for the first time today.
The parade will include floats from a wide spectrum of organisations, ranging from TfL to the Transport and General Workers Union, from Age Concern to Youth@Pride, and from Amnesty International to Battersea Dogs Home.
The line-up also includes floats from Ford, Terence Higgins Trust, Heart 106.2, Blue Cube, Nationwide Building Society, Shell Gay and Lesbian Network, Greater London Authority, and London Ambulance Service.
The two-week EuroPride London 06 festival began on 17 June, and features an unprecedented schedule of exhibitions, film screenings, sporting events, comedy shows, theatre performances and music concerts to showcase London’s vibrant gay and lesbian culture.
Canary Wharf Pride is set to transform West India Quay on Sunday 25 June with hundreds of revellers flocking to Beluga Cafe and Scuzi for a day packed with music, dancing and entertainment from 12.00pm until 8.00pm.
Canary Wharf Pride, on the middle Sunday of the two-week EuroPride London 06 festival, will feature stalls from the local fire service, the Metropolitan Police , Friends and Families of Lesbians and Gays (FFLAG), Tower Hamlets, Positive East, the Cabinet Office, and many more.
The event is designed to reach out to the whole community with children’s rides, salsa classes, bungee slides and street entertainers transforming West India Quay into a carnival atmosphere for the day of events.
Andy Heath, chairman of the Canary Wharf Gay and Lesbian Association, said:
“This is the inaugural Canary Wharf Pride event and is will celebrate the arrival of EuroPride 2006 in London. So many people from the local community have worked so hard to make it happen.
“We have had great support from Tower Hamlets, Barclays, West India Quay and British Waterways, as well as the host bars Beluga Cafe and Scuzi and all of their staff . It’s going to be a fantastic celebration.”
