Love is Love: The best ways to celebrate Pride in London

1 Queer Britain, King’s Cross

If you haven’t already, go check out Britain’s first permanent Queer museum, found in King’s Cross. Its current exhibition looks at the star of many John Waters films, Divine, and their time spent in London. There’s also a an interactive storytelling session with the author of The Pirate Mums, which is on Sunday, June 25 and suitable for kids aged 3-7.

Address: 2 Granary Square, King’s Cross N1C 4BH

Website: queerbritain.org.uk

2 Pride Month tours of Chelsea Physic Garden

Inspired by the garden’s A Dash of Lavender events in collaboration with Queer Botany, these guided tours will put a queer slant on the plants, fungi and lichen. Traditionally plants and nature have been examined through a European, male point of view and these tours aims to balance things up a little.

Dates: Wednesday & Thursday, July 28-29

Time: 11.30am & 2.30pm

Tickets: From £12.50

Address: 66 Royal Hospital Road, Chelsea SW3 4HS

Website: chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk

3 Proud West End

This audio-visual ‘living portraits’ art exhibition will share the spoken stories from 15 LGBTQ+ individuals across the West End, including Ru Paul drag queen Divina de Campo. These candid and vulnerable stories are accessed by QR codes, and are accompanied by on-street installations of large-scale portraits.

Dates: June 28-July 16

Price: Free

Address: Find the installations along Old Quebec Street, near Marble Arch station 

4 Classical Pride, Barbican

The Barbican Centre is hosting the first classical Pride concert by a major professional orchestra anywhere in Europe to pay tribute to the LGBTQ+ community’s contribution to classical music. Presented by DJ and broadcaster Nick Grimshaw, Oliver Zeffman conducts the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in Bernstein, Poulenc, Tchaikovsky, Caroline Shaw and a world premiere by Julian Anderson. Pavel Kolesnikov, Samson Tsoy, Ella Taylor, Nicky Spence and Davóne Tines are among the concert’s soloists.

Date: Friday, July 7

Time: 7.30pm

Tickets: From £15

Address: Silk St, Barbican, EC2Y 8DS

Website: barbican.org.uk

5 Drag Bingo x Gay-lidh, Walthamstow

Big Penny Social is putting on a night of games and out of control dancing with Party With Ginger as host. Join in on the bingo frivolities before a Gay-lidh takes over the dance floor. Once you’ve finished flinging people around, keep cutting those shapes with the DJs who will be playing tunes until late.

Date: Friday, June 30

Time: 7pm

Tickets: £12

Address: 1 Priestley Way, Walthmstow E17 6AL

Website: bigpennysocial.co.uk

6 Pride at Covent Garden

The central London neighbourhood will host an immersive installation from More Joy and Christopher Kane for pride month, as well as a stack of themed food and drink specials and retail therapy. The installation will feature more than 2,000 multi-coloured flags with seven different designs sharing massages of joy for Pride month. The installation will also raise money for Pride in London – Covent Garden and More Joy will share an Instagram post on July 1, and for every like, Covent Garden will donate £1 to the charity.

Date: The installation is on display now, until the end of summer. Like the Instagram post on July 1

Website: coventgarden.london

7 Pride’s Got Talent Grand Finale

Watch on as 10 emerging music and cabaret acts compete for their chance to wine £1,000 and take the competition crown. The five music finalists and five cabaret finalists will perform in from of a panel of industry judges including music and cabaret performers, producers and promoters. Expect a night filled with comedy, cabaret, drag, power ballads and bangers, with Alexa Vox, Pride’s Got Talent 2022 Cabaret category winner as a guest act.

Date: Thursday, June 27

Time: 7pm

Tickets: From £15

Address: Adelphi Theatre, Strand, WC2R 0NS

Website: lwtheatres.co.uk

8 Queer Jazz, Woolwich

This new three-part series by Woolwich Works, DJ Tina Edwards and singer Jelly Cleaver celebrates London-based LGBTQIA+ jazz artists. During Pride month, on south Londoner and vocalist and songwriter Eliza Oakes will take the stage, as will Faker Villain which features Faye Thompson on saxophone, bass clarinet and electronics, Kavi Maraj on bass and electronics, and Dillon Harrison on drums and percussion. Their improvised performances draw inspiration from a diversity of places, including from electronica, jazz, Hindustani classical, ambient experimental and progressive metal.

Date: Thursday, June 15

Time: 7pm

Tickets: £15/£12.75

Address: The Fireworks Factory, 11 No 1 Street, Royal Arsenal, SE18 6HD

Website: woolwich.works

9 Pride Parade

Good gosh this is a fun day that can unravel into good old-fashioned debauchery if you want it to. Show your support and celebrate the diversity within the LGBT+ community and watch the fanfare as it snakes through central London from Hyde Park Corner to Whitehall place and ends in a city-wide party for love and respect. Get amongst it.

Date: Saturday, July 1

Time: TBC

Website: prideinlondon.org