Pride Aloud is a series of events that will bring LGBTQ+ people together to celebrate our community, culture and creativity. GAY TIMES will be hosting a line-up of queer programming this Pride season, as well as teaming up with some of our partners for some of the season’s most anticipated parties.
From public exhibitions showcasing queer joy and classical concerts with a queer overhaul, to being left gagged by LGBTQ+ comedy stars and a community space to create placards ready for Pride, we’ve curated a queer summer to remember.
With drag under attack and our trans+ siblings facing escalating challenges daily, now, more than ever, it’s important to create safe spaces full of support and solidarity. All of our programming focuses on being loud and proud of who we are – from singing to comedy, to protest and party – using our voices to speak up for our rights as well as celebrate our community.
QUEER JOY
Runs from 1 June to 31 August
Location: Kings Cross, London
As part of its ongoing support and work in the queer community over the last eight years, SKITTLES® has once again joined forces with GAY TIMES, Queer Britain and Getty Images and this June, the group will launch an open-air exhibition called QUEER JOY across the King’s Cross neighbourhood in London.
QUEER JOY will showcase 50 striking portraits of queer people, captured by emerging LGBTQ+ photographers from the UK and abroad. The free exhibition, which runs 1 June – 31 August 2023, aims to shine a light on the unfiltered, queer self-expression that is vital to the LGBTQ+ community and highlight the feeling of Queer Joy.
The portraits will be displayed on the outdoor art benches on Granary Square, Pancras Square and Battlebridge Place as part of The Outside Art Project, which has turned the King’s Cross neighbourhood into one of the largest outdoor gallery spaces in London.
Read more about the campaign and exhibition here.
Standard Talks x GAY TIMES: PRIDE Panel
Date: 20 June
Location: The Standard, New York City
The Standard Talks is a reoccurring forum for big conversations where The Standard partners with various global institutions and industry leaders to present fascinating panel discussions covering a wide range of timely and cultural topics.
For June, they will partner with GAY TIMES for a discussion on connection and community. Connection – whether it’s through social support, love, art, events or socio-political involvement – is what holds community together at its core. It is a fundamental extension of our human need to belong. GT will be joined by some special panellists to discuss the topic and to foster a greater understanding of belonging and inclusion as a whole.
NYC Pride
Runs from 21 – 25 June
Location: New York City
GAY TIMES will be an official media partner of New York City Pride for a third year, bringing digital and social coverage throughout the week. With Christina Aguilera to headline the Pride Island event, numerous community figures giving speeches across the week, and one of the world’s largest parades, GT will be covering every aspect of what NYC Pride has to offer.
GAY TIMES will also be showing up in the city throughout the week with a handful of community events to be announced in due course.
Summer Session at The Rooftop at The Standard, London
Date: 28 June from 6pm to 11pm
Location: Kings Cross, London
Ahead of Pride in London, GAY TIMES will team up with Smirnoff to hold our first Summer Session at The Rooftop at The Standard, London. As the sunsets over London, cocktails will be flowing as Confidence Man brings the party with an epic DJ set. They’ll be accompanied by queer rave collective, Little Gay Brother, with a warm up set by Bestley.
Stay tuned to our socials to find out how you can win tickets.
The Pride Placard Pop-Up
Runs from 29 June to 1 July
Location: Regent Street, London
GAY TIMES will be hosting a special community space on Regent’s Street in London during Pride in London for LGBTQ+ people and allies to come along and create their own placards. Guests will have the opportunity to work with a queer creative team to produce Pride-ready banners that will make the pro-LGBTQ+ social and political statement they want to stand by.
Positioned just off the Pride in London parade route, the Pride Placard Pop-Up will be open for three days. Those who have worked on their own placard can walk away with it to march the streets of London on 1 July holding it high above their head.
Other creative activities include a pin badge making station, a GAY TIMES exhibition showcasing key queer content from our archives, and a photo moment to capture the memory for socials.
You can book your tickets for the Pride Placard Pop-Up here, and you can click here to find out more about Regent Street.
GAG! A Queer Comedy Night
Date: 30 June from 8:45pm to 11pm
Location: Soho Theatre, London
Join us as we celebrate the launch of GAG!, our exciting new series that showcases the best of queer comedy and cabaret talent. With a focus on diverse performers who push boundaries and challenge conventions, GAG! is the ultimate destination for fans of comedy that is fresh, funny and fabulous. Whether you’re looking for laugh-out-loud comedy, jaw-dropping drag performances or outrageous musical performers, GAG has it all.
Our comedy queers for the evening include Daniel Foxx, Dan Wye, Leila Navabi, Jodie Mitchell, Victoria Olsina, Su Mi and Dom McGovern.
Join us at Soho Theatre ahead of Pride in London as we celebrate the creativity, humour and unapologetic queer of some of the most talented performers in a showcase event that will celebrate eight new queer comics.
Tickets are priced from £18 and available now directly from Soho Theatre.
Breakthrough with Coca-Cola and GAY TIMES
Date: 1 July from 12pm to 2pm
Location: Pride in London Parade route
This summer, GAY TIMES and Coca-Cola have handpicked four emerging musicians and DJs who will take to the stage at some of the UK’s biggest music festivals and pride events. Keep an eye out for our Breakthrough talent as the float goes down the parade route with a very special DJ set.
Studland Soho with Little Gay Brother, Feel It, Fèmmme Fraîche, Meat and GAY TIMES
Date: 1 July from 6pm to 6am
Location: HERE at Outernet, Tottenham Court Road, London
Welcome to Studland Soho… Saddle up and get ready to ride, as London’s hottest queer club nights team up for a special event in the heart of Soho to celebrate PRIDE. Little Gay Brother, Feel It, Fèmmme Fraîche, Meat and GAY TIMES, come together for a huge 2000 cap mega-rave at London’s new super club, HERE, at Outernet.
Studland Soho will takeover the whole complex of Outernet; including it’s cocktail lounge, The Lower Third club space, and HERE, a new purpose built, state of the art club space. The crews have united to lasso the finest headline DJ talent, including the three P’s of Pride – Berlin’s Paramida! London fave Peach, and Scotland’s Prosumer!
These studs will be joined by the stars and residents of Little Gay Brother, Feel It, Fèmmme Fraîche and Meat – which make these parties so widely loved. Michelle Manetti, the Meat Boys, Dan Beaumont, Princess Julia, Jonjo Jury, Bryony Masters, Mike Menace, Darren & Linzi, will all take to the decks to keep Soho swinging until the early hours.
The whole event will be accompanied by bonkers visuals from Klub Artefakt, and will raise money for an LGBTQ+ charity. You don’t want to miss the biggest party the wild-Westend will have this Pride.
Classical Pride
Date: 7 July
Location: Barbican, London
Classical Pride in partnership with ViiV Healthcare and GAY TIMES, and supported by Mastercard, will be the first time any major concert hall or orchestra anywhere in the UK or Europe has given a classical orchestral concert for Pride.
Conceived and curated by conductor Oliver Zeffman, Classical Pride will take place on 7 July 2023 in the Barbican Hall in London. The evening will be hosted by radio and TV presenter, Nick Grimshaw.
The orchestral concert will pay tribute to enormously vast body of classical music that has been contributed by queer composers over the centuries, as well as celebrating the diversity of the the LGBTQ+ classical music community of today.
It will feature performances from trailblazing classical stars including Pavel Kolesnikov, Samson Tsoy, Davóne Tines, Nicky Spence and Ella Taylor.
The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra will be joined by an LGBTQ+ community choir, specially assembled for the occasion, and Zeffman will lead them in works by Tchaikovsky, Poulenc, Bernstein, Caroline Shaw and a new commission from British composer Julian Anderson.
