Tiny team with big plans for Scotland’s oldest and biggest Pride

Capital is inclusive, but there remains work to be done, Sarah McArthur reports

“There’s no other pride that feels so united as Edinburgh does… even though it’s become so big there’s such a hardcore community feel to it… you look out from the stage and there’s literally all parts of society, there’s buggies with grandparents at the back, there’s 14-year -olds at the front and everyone in between.” - Jamie Love. 

Jamie Love is part of a four-person team of year-round volunteers who will be pulling out all the stops to put on Edinburgh Pride on Saturday, 22 June. For context, London Pride has 280 year-round volunteers. Despite their lack of resources, Love and his peers are confident that this year’s festivities will carry on the upward trend of Edinburgh’s “festival of diversity”. 

Another must-see Edinburgh festival

What began as a political human rights protest in 1994 has become a multi-faceted event. It begins with a march, including speeches outside Holyrood from every political party. Afterwards there is a free festival, which showcases charities, offers education and sexual wellness services, and has dedicated spaces for young families, young people, and trans people. This year, the music line-up includes a huge variety from Drag Race stars to Atomic Kitten. In terms of attendance, Edinburgh Pride has grown from 2500 to 37,500 attendees in just the last seven years. 

Love believes this growth is a reflection of where the LGBT community stands in society now, compared to the 90s. It’s also thanks to a concerted effort to broaden the scope of Pride to appeal to a wider demographic; “Pride still is a protest, but I was keen on it including the younger generations… who needed Pride to be something else… we try to deliver something to every demographic and every person who comes along.”

Pride has also become a core part of Edinburgh tourism, with local restaurants and hotels reaching out to tell the organisers how many clients they have over the Pride weekend. “From a LGBT community perspective, Edinburgh doesn’t have the busiest LGBT spaces, but it does have some, whereas if you look at someone who lives in a village in Fife, this is a real date in the diary for them… I think it’s extremely popular for people outside of big cities in Scotland,” Love says. Especially since Glasgow Pride ran into problems a few years ago, and given Edinburgh’s proximity to the Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh has become “The Pride of Scotland,” in Love’s words. 

But Love insists that at its core, Pride is still a campaign for human rights. “In such crazy political times, Pride is even more important,” Love says, mentioning Italy where the rights of LGBT people have regressed in recent years. Love says that while Pride is always about visibility for every part of the LGBT community, “[each year] there are certain groups within our community that need that support more … the focus will definitely be on the lives of trans people and their rights this year.”