Chair of Pride in London says 2013 festival ‘made a slight loss’
The chairman of London LGBT+ Community Pride has revealed that this year’s event “almost broke even” but no money was given to charity.
In an interview to Gaydio, Michael Salter stated that the event, which costs about half a million to put on, made a slight loss. “We almost broke even,” he said. “We’ll be publishing our fully audited accounts at the year’s end.
“Most companies don’t turn a profit in their first year which is a shame because what we wanted to do with [the surplus] was to reinvest in the event for future years or secondly, give it in grants back to the community.
“London, in recent years, hadn’t raised anything unlike Manchester for instance. This year was about building a very strong foundation. Sounds a bit boring but is really important.
“We built a solid foundation to be able to show to the corporate sponsors that we can run the event well and can attract people to London. And that in turn will enable us to raise more in future years and then give back to the LGBT causes which are close to our hearts.”
This evening, London LGBT+ Community Pride will hold an open meeting where they will present a report of their first year of operations and take any questions on what can be done better or differently in future years.
A live Twitter feed at the event will also allow questions to be tweeted to the organisers through @londonLGBTPride.
In a statement Mr Salter added: “We are committed to keeping the community fully informed of our progress as we create a Pride in London sustainable into the future.
“We have lots of feedback to report on this year’s festival from individuals and groups in the community, sponsors and delivery partners and we look forward to discussing that feedback as well as plans for Pride 2014 at tonight’s meeting.”
Mayor of London Boris Johnson commented: ‘I am delighted to support London’s Pride celebrations, which are hugely important for the capital – as a community based event to be enjoyed by everyone, but also underscoring our city’s reputation as one of the most LGBT friendly in the world. This year’s event was a great success and I am looking forward to London LGBT+ Community Pride building on that work to make it even greater in 2014.”
This year, they raised raised £34,000 for their local causes while Brighton Pride gave £43,000 to local LGBT charities in Brighton.
