Pride celebrates collaboration with Love Southsea 

New for 2023, Portsmouth Pride has partnered with Love Southsea to create Love is Love Southsea Market at its Main Day event.

The collaboration will bring together makers & creators, artists & community groups, food vendors and many more into this new area at Portsmouth Pride's Main Day event on 10th June. 

With an anticipated 100+ stalls and expected 12,000 visitors throughout the day, it should prove to be a popular and successful endeavour.

Love Southsea is the brand behind Love Southsea markets which has brought together local creatives, and breathed life into Palmerston Road, for over a decade. Its success has seen it branch out to markets in Cosham, Gunwharf Quays, the Southsea food festival, the international kite festival, Victorian festival of Christmas at the Historic Dockyard and beyond. 

Portsmouth Pride will host a stall in the Saturday Love Southsea market to engage with the local community and sell Portsmouth Pride official merchandise. 

Louise 'Lulu' Whitmore is Love Southsea's Director, who won the Shaping Portsmouth Business Award for Enterprise, and recently received an Inspirational Women of Portsmouth Award. 

Lulu nurtures and empowers small local businesses in the community, and says: 'The ethos behind our markets is inclusivity. Everybody is welcome attend and to sell'. Portsmouth Pride's ethos is to keep Pride free, open and unfenced so that everyone is welcomed, and to support local LGBTQ+ creators and artists. As our Chair Tally said in a recent interview, 'I want the event to grow, but keep the ethos: I want it to be free; I want it to be accessible for everyone; I want the impact that we have within the city'. 

Lulu said of the markets in 2021: ‘Everyone always helps each other - it’s just such a fun place and a happy vibe'. Here's to bringing those happy vibes to a wider audience at our Main Day event on 10th June! We'll see you there.

"Big huge congratulations to @portsmouthprideuk stunning event last night at the rainbow coloured @thespinnakertower. By making Portsmouth Pride a free event, the aim is to ensure that everyone, regardless of their financial situation, can attend and participate in the celebration of the LGBTQ+ community. It also helps to remove any potential barriers that may prevent people from attending, such as ticket prices or other costs.

Furthermore, the free nature of Portsmouth Pride helps to reinforce the message of inclusivity and acceptance that the event promotes. It sends a message that everyone, regardless of their background or financial situation, is welcome and valued within the LGBTQ+ community.

With all this in mind and to maintain this @portsmouthprideuk have some brilliant packages of all price ranges for business big and small to get involved as a sponsor, what a wonderful cause to be a part of! If you are interested in sponsoring please inbox me."