Pride Edinburgh is Scotland’s national LGBTQIA+ festival. This year will mark our 26th Anniversary Pride Event in the capital city. The annual Pride Edinburgh March confirms our shared commitment to a better future for all irrespective of sexuality, gender, and colour.
This year, Pride Edinburgh is returning in its full form after a scaled-back event in 2022 due to COVID-19. Marking its 28th year, the annual festival will take place on the 24th of June 2023. This year’s headline sponsor will be Johnnie Walker Princes Street, the eight-floor visitor experience, in the heart of Scotland’s capital city which tells the story of the world’s best-selling scotch.
Brett Herriot, Chair of Pride Edinburgh says: “After a smaller festival in 2022, we at Pride Edinburgh are delighted to be back for our 26th event in our 28th year. Now more than ever, as national headlines continue to reflect the struggle LGBTQIA+ people face, we can fully celebrate coming together to commemorate our history and advocate for our community! In preparation, we have expanded the Pride Edinburgh team to deliver the march and festival our capital city has come to expect. To achieve this, we appreciate having the support of our neighbour Johnnie Walker Princes Street.”
Diageo, the parent company of Johnnie Walker Princes Street, has an established history of supporting Pride and that has been embraced by the team at the Edinburgh visitor attraction. Led by its global Rainbow network of LGBTQIA+ colleagues, Pride 2022 was bigger than ever for the business. 85 sites raised the Pride Progress flag and throughout the month a number of events took place, including a Learning for Life event at Johnnie Walker Princes Street aimed at upskilling hospitality teams across LGBTQIA+ venues, ‘Stories that Inspire’, an event in Venezuela with Tamara Adrian (the first transgender person elected to office in Venezuela), and the first-ever Diageo Pride event in Santa Vittoria, Italy. Already this year, Johnnie Walker has thrown its support behind World Pride Australia. More broadly, Diageo operates numerous initiatives to support the LGBTQIA+ community, including an industry-leading parental leave policy giving all UK employees 26 weeks’ paid leave, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, or whether they become parents biologically, via surrogacy, or adoption.
The business has also been awarded full marks on the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index, which rates US workplaces on LGBTQIA+equality, for 14 years running.
Barbara Smith, Managing Director of Scotland Brand Homes and Johnnie Walker Princes Street, said: “Since opening, we have proudly supported Pride with an incredible calendar of events coordinated by our Rainbow Network, such as a tailored ‘Pride with Purpose’ workshop through our Learning for Life skills programme, which was designed to support and upskill LGBTQIA+ hospitality venues and LGBTQIA+ community hospitality workers.
“We are delighted to extend our support as the headline sponsor this year. Our core purpose as a business is to Celebrate Life, Every Day, Everywhere, and championing inclusion and diversity is at the heart of this. It is important for us to ensure the talents and contributions of all of our employees, and guests, are respected, valued, and embraced, and I look forward to joining this year’s celebrations in June.”
In addition to the Johnnie Walker Princes Street main stage, Pride-goers can expect a march through the streets of Edinburgh, community spaces, youth venues, and spectacular entertainment with route and scheduled acts soon to be announced.